Yekaterinburg murder case: Defendant Safarov appeals pretrial detention

Akif Safarov, accused in the case concerning murders from previous years in Yekaterinburg, has filed an appeal against his pretrial detention, a source in the combined press service of the courts in Sverdlovsk Oblast told the Russian state news agency TASS.

The court had previously ordered the detention of Ayaz, Akif, and Mazahir Safarov. On July 1, it was announced that Bakir Safarov and Ahliman Ganjiyev were also arrested.

“A pretrial detention appeal for Akif Safarov has been submitted to the Lenin District Court of Yekaterinburg,” an unnamed source told the agency.

On June 27, the officers of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) conducted raids on over ten residences of Azerbaijanis in Yekaterinburg, targeting an alleged ethnic Azerbaijani criminal group linked to murders and attempted murders between 2001 and 2011, including the 2001 killing of businessman Yunis Pashayev.

During the operation, Ziyaddin Safarov (a Russian citizen) and Huseyn Safarov (an Azerbaijani citizen) were killed, with Russian authorities claiming they died from heart failure, while the other remains under investigation. Nine others, including Bakir, Akif, Ayaz, and Mazahir Safarov, Ahliman Ganjiyev, and Shahin Lalayev, were detained, with court hearings in Yekaterinburg’s Lenin District Court extending their pretrial detention till July 19.

By Khagan Isayev