The cause of death of the Safarov brothers in Yekaterinburg was determined to be blunt force trauma

The cause of death of Guseyn and Ziyaddin Safarov, detained during a special operation by security forces in Yekaterinburg, was blows with a blunt object, an examination in Baku concluded. The Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan opened a criminal case under articles on murder and torture.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote, Akhliman Ganjiyev, detained in Yekaterinburg along with other ethnic Azerbaijanis, told his lawyer that he was beaten by security forces and tortured after his detention. Vugar Safarov claims that on the way to the police station he and his brother were insulted on the basis of their nationality and forced to eat dirt, and his father Mazahir Safarov was repeatedly shocked with a taser. During the detention, everyone was beaten. Kamal Safarov was taken to intensive care after his detention. The Russian Investigative Committee stated that one defendant in the contract killings case in Yekaterinburg died of heart failure, and the cause of death of the second is "being established." On the evening of June 30, the bodies of the Safarov brothers (also referred to in the media as the Sefarovs) were delivered to Baku. A relative stated that a new forensic examination of the bodies would be conducted in Azerbaijan, since he does not trust the conclusions of Russian experts.

The Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan has opened a criminal case on the fact of premeditated murder with particular cruelty and torture of two citizens of Azerbaijan and persons of Azerbaijani origin by Russian law enforcement officers, Report reported today.

During the detention, transportation and detention in administrative buildings of Yekaterinburg, security forces inflicted multiple blows with blunt objects on the detainees on various parts of the body. The detainees were tortured and suffered serious bodily injuries.

As a result of these actions, 60-year-old Azerbaijani citizen Guseyn Safarov, who was engaged in small business, died at about 15:00 local time in the administrative building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Yekaterinburg. His brother, 55-year-old Ziyaddin Safarov, who worked as a taxi driver, died that morning in the official vehicle of the task force. According to the conclusion of the forensic medical examination, Guseyn Safarov died of post-traumatic and post-hemorrhagic shock against the background of multiple injuries, including multiple rib fractures. Ziyaddin Safarov died from traumatic shock caused by multiple injuries.

Other Azerbaijani citizens detained in the same operation were similarly inflicted with varying degrees of bodily injuries and are currently undergoing treatment in Russian medical institutions.

The Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan has opened a criminal case under articles on a crime against an Azerbaijani citizen outside the country, intentional murder by a group of persons, murder with particular cruelty, murder by prior agreement, abuse of office and torture that led to death.

The Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan will send relevant requests for legal assistance to other states in accordance with international law for an effective investigation and bringing the perpetrators to justice, the report says.

The conclusion of the examination of the bodies of the Safarov brothers, issued in Azerbaijan, does not coincide with the conclusion of the Russian examination, said the general director of the Association of Forensic Medical Examination and Pathological anatomy of the Ministry of Health, Professor Adalat Hasanov.

"None of the brothers were killed by a sharp object or firearm, they were struck with a blunt object," APA quotes him as saying.

An examination conducted in Azerbaijan revealed the presence of internal hematomas from blunt object blows. During the examination, bilateral displaced rib fractures were also discovered: "As a result of the displacement of the fractures, the lungs were damaged. Hemorrhages were also noted between the ribs. In addition, there were extensive hemorrhages in the diaphragm," the agency quoted the professor as saying.

Relations between Moscow and Baku have noticeably worsened after an Azerbaijan Airlines plane with 67 people on board crashed in Kazakhstan on December 25, 2024, flying from Baku to Grozny. You can read more about this in the "Caucasian Knot" reference "Baku-Grozny flight crash" and in the material "Geopolitical confrontation: what the crash of the AZAL plane led to".

In February, at the request of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, the activities of the "Russian House" in Baku were terminated, then the representative office of the media group "Russia Today" was liquidated. In May, Azerbaijan named Russia the organizer of a cyberattack on its media in connection with these events.

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