Anar Asadli, Chairman of the Azerbaijani Party “Rise” (“Yüksəliş”), has been charged with fraud. Narimanov district court decided to arrest him for 3 months.
On April 20, Asadli was summoned to the Interior Ministry’s Main Directorate for Combating Organised Crime “to clarify one minor matter”, the Party said. After a six-hour stay at the agency, he was released.
However, on April 21, Asadli was again summoned to the said department, where he was charged under Article 178 (fraud) of the Criminal Code and taken to court.
Turan Agency has not yet had comments from Asadli’s lawyer or loved ones.
Recall that Asadli had earlier been banned from leaving the country. On November 18 last year, he failed to depart for Ankara.
At the time, the Interior Ministry’s press office told Turan that he was being investigated on the basis of complaints from two citizens. “They told police that he (Anar Asadli) had fraudulently embezzled their money to the amount of $150,000 and $10,000,” the Interior Ministry said.
However, Asadli claimed the allegations were baseless and linked the restriction of his rights to a “political order”.
Note that the “Rise” Party was established after the 2020 Parliamentary elections, in which Asadli ran for MP and claimed fraud at the end of the vote. The Party was registered in 2021.
Ideologically, the “Rise” Party is nationalist, advocating for the unity of the Turkic world. However, in political life the Party did not stand out in any way from other dozens of similar organizations.
It is therefore difficult to say how well-founded the charges against Asadli are.