“What affected me most deeply was that police operatives planted narcotics and psychotropic substances in my pocket, and also mixed a toxic substance into my tea.”
These are part of the final words, the last voice recording, of Ilgar Aliyev, who recently died in Correctional Facility No. 13.
Ilgar Aliyev, a well-known expert in information and communication technologies, was arrested in 2023 during the wave of repression targeting Abzas Media. He said that he had been framed and imprisoned, that he had been forced, while being filmed, to confess that the narcotic substance belonged to him, and that the court had issued an unlawful verdict against him.
“On December 13, 2023, I was unlawfully detained after being subjected to police fabrication, false accusations, and violence. At the Nasimi District Police Department, they planted a psychotropic substance in my pocket. I realized it later. They threatened me so that I would confess it belonged to me, they threatened me with my family. They said that if I denied that the planted substance was mine, they would bring in my family, my wife, or claim they found it in my home, and they would also produce witnesses, false attesting witnesses, to say that it really belonged to me,” Ilgar Aliyev said in his final voice recording.
Court documents obtained by Abzas Media also state that Ilgar Aliyev was subjected to physical violence by police officers during his detention. In his court testimony, he said that on December 13, 2023, a large-built man in civilian clothes approached him and punched him in the chest. After that, three more people forcibly put him into a car and took him to Police Station No. 20 of the Nasimi District Police Department.
According to Ilgar Aliyev, the same person who punched him in the chest also placed an unidentified object into his pocket at that moment. When he tried to remove it, he was told: “Do not take it out, it will be bad for you. Do not make us take it out of your family members’ pockets instead.”
“Approximately two to three hours later, he was ordered to remove the package that had been placed in his pocket. When Ilgar Aliyev took out the package, the narcotic substance inside spilled onto the table. At that moment, one of the operatives shouted at another and asked, “Why did you seal it so badly?” After the package was re-sealed with adhesive tape, police officers placed it back into Ilgar Aliyev’s jacket pocket. He was told that if he did not take out the package during the video recording, they would do it in the presence of attesting witnesses. The video recording was conducted twice,” reads the court document obtained by Abzas Media.
After this, Ilgar Aliyev was taken to the Main Department for Combating Narcotics. In his final voice recording, he emphasized that his rights were violated there as well, and that his right to legal defense was disregarded.
“The officers of the Main Department for Combating Narcotics had unlawfully detained me. They drafted the statement themselves in my name. They copied the documents one by one in a distorted form, and under psychological pressure they did not allow me to read them properly and forced me to sign them. I did not write my own statement. My fundamental rights were violated there as well. In particular, they falsified procedural documents (the interrogation protocols of the suspect and the accused person), but at that time, even the lawyer they had appointed was not present with me. Later, when the investigator went to conduct a search, he made me sign those documents on the hood of a car. They did not allow the lawyers I knew to defend me,” Ilgar Aliyev said in the recording.
The late expert said that he faced serious obstacles in gaining access to lawyers of his own choosing. Only after two court rulings, and two months later, was he able to secure that right. Court documents state that Ilgar Aliyev was later taken to the Main Department for Combating Organized Crime and placed in its temporary detention facility. There, he was subjected to another alleged fabrication that caused health problems:
“That day, Ilgar Aliyev was taken by a plainclothes police officer into one of the service rooms and seated there. He was given tea. There were three or four officers in the room, and he began speaking with them. The glass of tea given to him contained a slice of lemon, while the other glasses did not. He drank half of the tea placed in front of him. Later, when tea was poured again, he did not drink it. The tea he had consumed had a specific taste and smell. He was later returned to the temporary detention facility. There, he experienced dizziness and lay down on his bed. He had chills and hot flashes seven or eight times and began going to the bathroom approximately every hour. The next day, police officers took him to a forensic examination facility in the settlement of Mashtaga. There, it was reported that psychotropic substances had been detected in the samples taken from him,” the court document states.
The late ICT specialist also claimed that a toxic substance had been mixed into the tea he drank at the Main Department for Combating Organized Crime. According to him, this was done in an attempt to create grounds for arresting him as a user of psychotropic substances.
“The Main Department for Combating Organized Crime deceived me and mixed a toxic substance into my tea at that department. For four or five days, my condition was unstable and I did not feel well. The purpose was for signs of a toxic substance to appear in my blood, so that they could obtain grounds to have me arrested as a user of psychotropic substances.”
Ilgar Aliyev was detained just a few days after the arrest of Abzas Media’s director and editor-in-chief. Court documents state that he linked his arrest to the training sessions he had conducted for representatives of independent media. He was asked questions about the trainings he had provided to journalists from Abzas Media, Meclis.info, and Kanal 13.
“In other words, using falsified evidence and fabricated materials, they falsely portrayed me as a user of psychotropic substances and as someone involved in their sale. I spent eight days in the basement of the Main Department for Combating Organized Crime. But during those eight days, I was not asked a single question about that accusation. The main questions asked by the department’s officers in service rooms were about my professional activities, my trainings, whom I had trained, and how I had conducted those trainings, everything was about that. As an ICT manager, it had never even crossed my mind that someone could be arrested for conducting trainings or for being a trainer,” the late expert said.
In his final voice recording, Ilgar Aliyev said that from the day of his detention, he was unable to meet with or speak by phone to his family and children for eight months. According to him, his family suffered severe distress during that period.
He said that although his electronic devices were examined for months, no unlawful activity was found. His rights were repeatedly violated during the investigation. In his testimony, he said that when the Narimanov District Court was choosing a pre-trial detention measure against him, he reported that he had been subjected to pressure, but the judge ignored it.
To prove that his right to defense had been violated and that his lawyer had not been present when he gave testimony to the investigator, he filed a motion asking the court to obtain his lawyer’s cell tower data. However, the court rejected that motion as well. Ilgar Aliyev said that while he was being held in pre-trial detention, two officers from the Main Department for Combating Organized Crime came to him and pressured him to renounce his lawyer.
“They spoke to me and told me to give up my own lawyer and organize my defense through the lawyers they named, the lawyers they had appointed. They said that if I did not renounce this lawyer, they would take me to what is called the “Bandotdel” (the Organized Crime Department) and physical violence would be used against me there. I cannot explain everything here, but after various conversations, I was forced to sign that document, the “waiver document”,” Ilgar Aliyev said.
On January 30, 2025, Ilgar Aliyev was sentenced to four years in prison by the Baku Grave Crimes Court, in a trial presided over by Judge Farid Namazov. He had initially been charged with illegal trafficking of narcotic substances in large quantities. The court later concluded that the accused had not obtained the narcotics with intent to sell. On that basis, his actions were reclassified under Article 234.1-1 of the Criminal Code- illegal acquisition, possession, manufacture, processing, or transportation of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances in large quantities without intent to sell.
In March this year, the Supreme Court partially upheld Ilgar Aliyev’s appeal and reduced his prison sentence from four years to three years.
He said that he had also written letters about his unlawful imprisonment to President Ilham Aliyev and Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva, but had received no response to what he wrote.
Ilgar Aliyev, the father of four young children, was a specialist with many years of experience in information technology, information security, and IT governance. He held senior positions in various public and private institutions, including the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and South Caucasus pipeline projects, the Baku International Sea Trade Port, and the Shusha City State Reserve Administration. Before his arrest, he served as Chief Information Officer of Baku International Sea Trade Port CJSC. Ilgar Aliyev held international professional certifications including CISA, CISM, CGEIT, CRISC, and others.
“I have more than 500 students, and I am an international trainer. I have had a successful career in many companies. I hold nearly 20 international certifications. But I could never have imagined that professionals would be arrested on such false and fabricated charges. I believe that justice will prevail. God willing, everything will come to light, and I will continue my struggle.”
Reports published in pro-government media stated that Ilgar Aliyev died due to illness. In an initial statement by the Ministry of Justice, the cause of death was given as acute cardiovascular failure.
However, people close to him say that he had no health complaints while in prison.
Although inquiries were sent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs regarding the rights violations alleged by Ilgar Aliyev, and to the Ministry of Justice regarding the final cause of his death, no responses had been received by the time this material was published.
“The president has a good saying: “The worst form of injustice is injustice itself.” I was subjected to total injustice,” the late expert said in his final voice recording.
