Despite purchasing two apartments from Nakhchivani businessman Haji Ibrahim Ibrahim, Elshad Mammadov was left homeless and after three years and numerous complaints, decided to protest by sewing his mouth. He demands justice from the President Ilham Aliyev, and threatens to burn himself otherwise.
According to Azerlife’s Kazakh reporter, Nijat Amiraslanov, Mr. Mammadov purchased two apartments for the total price of 355,000 AZN ($445,000) in Baku from Mr. Ibrahimov’s company Hasan 96 MKT. However, one of the apartments was later resold to another buyer, and the other one was confiscated on falsified court’s decision, according to Mr. Mammadov. For the last three years Mr. Mammadov was forced to rent places in Kazakh together with his wife and three children.
“Haji Ibrahim’s people repeatedly threatened him about his complaints. Therefore, he had to move to Kazakh with his family and rent a place there. Anti-Corruption Department has reviewed Mr. Mammadov’s case, and confirmed that he had all the reasons to appeal, his case has been passed to the court. However, on May 16 the Supreme Court decided to postpone the hearing, as the case was under the Anti-Corruption Department’s review. However, the Department claimed to have closed the case,” reported Mr. Amiraslanov.
Before proceeding with the protest, he video-addressed President Ilham Aliyev. In his video appeal, Mr. Mammadov complained that despite addressing several state bodies numerous times, no results have so far been achieved. He brought an example of Karabakh veteran, Zaur Hasanov, who died of self-immolation for similar reasons last year. Mr. Elshad Mammadov demanded a meeting with the President.
Mr. Ibrahimov, known as Haji Ibrahim, is the brother of the chairman of the State Committee on the Work with Diaspora, Nazim Ibrahimov. He leads several upscale construction projects in Baku. One of them is the $60 billion artificial city project in the Caspian Sea. The city is planned 28 kilometers away from Baku, to be built at the Sahil settlement of Garadagh district. The main part of the city called Khazar Islands will be located on 50 artificially created islands.
