BAKU, Dec 1 (Reuters) – A court in Azerbaijan on Monday ordered a key opposition figure to be held in pre-trial detention until mid-February following his arrest on charges of plotting to overthrow President Ilham Aliyev.
Ali Karimli, who has led the Azerbaijani Popular Front Party since 2000, rejected the charges against him as politically motivated, his lawyer told Reuters.
Azerbaijan’s State Security Service raided Karimli’s house on Saturday and later arrested him and two other APFP members. One of them, Mammad Ibrahim, was also placed in pre-trial detention until February 13.
A government source told Reuters over the weekend that the probe into Karimli was connected to an ongoing criminal case against Ramiz Mehdiyev, head of the presidential administration from 1994 to 2019.
The source said Karimli was accused by the authorities of being financed by Mehdiyev.
A court in October ordered Mehdiyev, 87, put under house arrest for four months on various charges, including for an attempt to illegally seize power. It’s not clear how Mehdiyev pleads to the charges.
The deputy chairman of the APFP, Fuad Gahramanli, on Monday rejected claims that Karimli was linked to Mehdiyev.
(Reporting by Nailia Bagirova in Baku; Writing by Lucy Papachristou in Tbilisi; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Ros Russell)
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