AZERBAIJAN: AIR FORCE COMMANDER’S ASSASSINATION MAY HAVE BEEN INSIDE JOB — BAKU PROSECUTOR
Shahin Abbasov
ightb/articles/eav100509a.shtml
10/05/09
With their investigation ready to enter its eighth month,
prosecutors in Baku are now pursuing the theory that Lt. Gen. Rail
Rzayev, Azerbaijan’s air force commander, was assassinated by his
subordinates. Investigators remain mystified over the motive for the
killing, however.
Rzayev was shot and killed early in the morning of February 11
while sitting in his car outside his apartment building in downtown
Baku, a location scanned by multiple security cameras and 24-hour
armed guards. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Law
enforcement agencies investigating the death announced in May that
they had developed a composite sketch of the suspected killer, but
no arrests have been made. In May, President Ilham Aliyev appointed
Maj. Gen. Altay Mehdiyev, a former army chief of staff for the exclave
of Nakhchivan, Aliyev’s home region, to fill Rzayev’s command.
In an interview with EurasiaNet, General Prosecutor Zakir Garalov
stated that the investigation into Rzayev’s death "continues and
it is under the control of President Aliyev." He did not comment
on the investigation’s rate of progress. Prosecutors are currently
investigating "several people," including Lt. Gen. Rzayev’s assistant,
Maj. Aydin Rafiyev, his aide-de-camp, Capt. Anar Gashimov, and
a few other army officers in connection with the crime, Garalov
revealed. The Azerbaijani air force operates under the auspices of
the country’s army.
Shortly after Rzayev’s murder, an unknown person entered the
commander’s office and stole "some items," Garalov said. He did not
specify the items stolen. Both Rafiyev and Gashimov have been arrested
in connection with the missing items.
Garalov indicated that the possibility exists that the two could be
held accountable for the murder itself. "[T]he investigation does not
exclude that these people are also involved in the general’s murder,"
Garalov said. He added, however, that prosecutors are still searching
to come up with a motive for the crime.
"Foreign experts" are participating in the investigation, but Garalov
did not state their nationality or institutional association.
A source in the Military Prosecutor’s office, speaking on condition of
anonymity, told EurasiaNet that a few Defense Ministry officials are
also under investigation, including a relative of Lt. Gen. Rzayev,
Lt. Col. Fuad Agarzayev, who works with the Azerbaijani air force
and anti-aircraft defense forces.
Lt. Gen. Rzayev’s widow, Mahira Rzayeva, declined to speak with
EurasiaNet about the investigation, but said that she hopes that her
husband’s murderer will eventually be arrested.
Some experts, however, doubt that will ever happen.
One criminal law expert suggested that the suspected killer may not
be Azerbaijani — a situation that could complicate an arrest. The
expert contended that the guilty party could be a contract killer
with foreign citizenship. "He came to Baku, fulfilled the order
[to kill Lt. Gen. Rzayev] and managed to leave Azerbaijan the same
day or shortly after that," the expert speculated. Investigators may
have opted to wait for the individual to commit another crime before
attempting to arrest him or her, the expert added.
But if investigators have been unable to determine a motive after
a seven-month probe, it seems unlikely that the passage of more time
will help clarify matters, commented Eyyub Kerimov, a Baku-based lawyer
and the editor-in-chief of Femida 007 (Justice 007), a newspaper that
covers legal affairs. The lack of a presumed motive and arrested
suspect "show the lack of any real progress in the investigation,"
Kerimov said.
Editor’s Note: Shahin Abbasov is a freelance correspondent
based in Baku. He is also a board member of the Open Society
Institute-Azerbaijan.