Arrest of son of head of Azerbaijani diaspora in Urals appealed

The defense of Mutvala Shykhlinski, the son of the head of the Azerbaijani diaspora in the Urals, Shahin Shykhlinski, has appealed his arrest.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" reported, on July 16, the court arrested Mutvala Shykhlinski on charges of violence against a security officer: on the day of the arrest of the elder Shykhlinski, his son was driving a Gelendvagen and hit one of the special forces soldiers.

The lawyer of Mutvala Shykhlinski, the son of the chairman of the Sverdlovsk regional public national-cultural organization "Azerbaijan-Ural", appealed his arrest.

According to his lawyer Pavel Korobkov, the decision of the court of first instance does not meet the requirements of the criminal procedure code, since it is based solely on the severity of the charge. The lawyer also noted that the investigation did not present any evidence that Shykhlinski could hide, destroy evidence or otherwise influence the course of the case. "In our opinion, these violations are significant and entail the cancellation of the judicial act," RBK quotes Korobov as saying.

Judging by information from the website of the Chamber of Advocates of the Sverdlovsk Region, Mutvala Shykhlinski has lawyer status and is a member of the regional bar association. The president of the chamber, Igor Putintsev, said that the organization is cooperating with the investigation, RIA Novosti reports.

According to the investigation, while trying to leave the place of detention, Mutvala Shykhlinski, who was driving the car, hit one of the FSB officers with an open door. The security officer "received serious injuries," Kommersant-Ural reported.

Shakhin Shykhlinski was released after questioning - he is a witness in the criminal case against the Safarov brothers, which is related to the investigation of a series of murders and attempted murders committed in Yekaterinburg in 2001-2011, the publication writes.

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 brothers Guseyn and Ziyaddin Safarov, while the Russian side called the cause of death a heart attack.

Against the backdrop of the diplomatic crisis between Moscow and Baku, security forces in various Russian regions have developed complaints against ethnic Azerbaijanis, including those with Russian citizenship. At the same time, Russians and tourists living in Azerbaijan complained about security forces’ visits and demands to appear at migration services.

The diplomatic crisis that arose between Moscow and Baku after these events is described in the “Caucasian Knot” report “Crisis in Relations between Azerbaijan and Russia”.