Son of head of Yekaterinburg's Azerbaijani diaspora denies guilt in attack on security officer

Mutvala Shykhlinsky's lawyer, the son of the head of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Yekaterinburg, has been arrested in connection with the case of violence against a security officer. Shykhlinsky said that he did not see the security officer and unintentionally knocked him down.

As "Caucasian Knot" wrote, the head of the "Azerbaijan-Ural" organization, Shahin Shikhlinsky (also referred to in the media as Shykhlinsky - note by "Caucasian Knot") was detained by security forces in Yekaterinburg on the evening of July 1. According to his son, he was taken away for questioning to the Investigative Committee as a witness. At night, the security forces released the detainee, he was interrogated in the Safarov case.

On June 28, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry called on the Russian authorities to investigate the deaths and injuries of Azerbaijanis who suffered on June 27 as a result of a special operation by security forces in Yekaterinburg. Experts in Baku called blunt force trauma the cause of death of the brothers Huseyn and Ziyaddin Safarov, while the Russian side called the cause of death a heart attack.

The lawyer of Mutvala Shykhlinski, the son of the head of the Azerbaijani diaspora in the Urals, Shahin Shykhlinski, who is accused of violence against a security officer (Part 1 of Article 318 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), was sent to custody until September 14, Ura.Ru reported.

The defense asked for house arrest, but the court made a different decision. Mutvala himself denies guilt, considers the arrest illegal and will appeal it, the publication E1/ reported today.

The court hearing was held behind closed doors - journalists were present in the courtroom at the beginning of the hearing and at the announcement of the decision. The investigation asked to close the trial, since the case materials contain testimony from the victim, and his identity is classified.

The son of the head of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Yekaterinburg, Mutvala Shykhlinski, against whom a case of violence against a government official has been opened, stated in court that he did not intentionally harm the government official and regrets what happened, TASS reported.

"It was not intentional. I did not see him, he was on my right, it became known later. I deeply regret what happened," he said in response to a question about why harm was caused to an employee on duty.

On July 1, during the arrest of his father, Shahin, Mutvala Shykhlinski was driving a Gelenvagen and hit one of the special forces soldiers. Two weeks later, Shykhlinsky Jr. was arrested on charges under Article 318 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation — use of violence against a government official.

Mutvala Shykhlinsky is a practicing lawyer. He graduated from the Ural State Law University named after Yakovlev in Yekaterinburg and studied at the Institute of State and International Law. According to his VKontakte page, he has an award from Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for strengthening the friendship between the peoples of Russia and Azerbaijan, Ura.ru reports.

Recall that on June 30, Azerbaijani security forces searched the office of the Russian agency Sputnik Azerbaijan and detained two people, calling them agents of the Russian special services, they were arrested. Also on July 1, the court arrested eight Russian citizens, detained on charges of drug trafficking and cybercrime.

Security officials in various Russian regions have complaints about ethnic Azerbaijanis, including those with Russian citizenship. At the same time, Russians and tourists living in Azerbaijan complained about security officials' visits and demands to appear at migration services. On July 4, it became known that the Russian authorities deprived the head of the regional national-cultural autonomy of Azerbaijanis of the Moscow region Elshan Ibragimov of Russian citizenship. This decision was not a consequence of the events in the Urals and the diplomatic crisis that arose between Baku and Moscow, said Ibragimov's lawyer. On July 9, Ibragimov left Russia.