AZERBAIJAN/FILE: Opposition leader accused of poisoning former president

Record ID: 218270

  • Title: AZERBAIJAN/FILE: Opposition leader accused of poisoning former president
  • Date: 30th August 2012
  • Summary: BAKU, AZERBAIJAN (FILE) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ELCHIBEY DURING MEETING WITH MUSAVAT PARTY LEADER ISA GAMBAR
  • Embargoed: 14th September 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Azerbaijan
  • Country: Azerbaijan
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA32XNYF46F5WL9L2Y19TU9R7CA
  • Story Text: The leader of one of Azerbaijan's opposition parties has been accused of poisoning former Azerbaijani president Abulfaz Elchibey, nearly 12 years after Elchibey's death.
    Khafiz Gadjiyev, the leader of minority Azerbaijan opposition party 'Muasir' (Modern) Musavat accused Popular Front Party (AHCP) chairman Ali Kerimli of administering poison to the country's former president Abulfaz Elchibey.
    Gadjiyev said the president personally told him he'd been poisoned by 'Komsomol' - a nickname of Ali Kerimli.
    "I personally filed an appeal on behalf of our party to the prosecutor general, saying that (President) Abulfaz Elchibey had told me himself that "Komsomol" administered the drug (poison). When he (Elchibey) said 'Komsomol,' he meant (Azerbaijan Popular Front Party Chairman) Ali Kerimli," Gadjiyev told Reuters.
    President Abulfaz Elchibey, once a Soviet-time dissident, became a chairman of the opposition Popular Front Party and, in 1992, the second president of Azerbaijan. He was toppled in a military coup a year later and lived in exile in his native village till 1997, when his successor, President Heydar Aliyev, issued permission for his return to the capital.
    Elchibey died from cancer in 2000 in one of Turkey's military hospitals, to which he travelled several times to receive treatment during his illness.
    Ali Kerimli stepped in to become the head of Azerbaijan's opposition Popular Front Party after Elchibey's death in 2000, when the party broke up into conservative and reformist wings. He leads the reformist wing, and has participated in an opposition bloc together with several other opposition parties since 2005.
    Kerimli has refuted the accusations of poisoning as groundless.
    "This charge has no foundation, no ground, because he (President Abulfaz Elchibey) had cancer. He was treated in Turkey in very good hospitals for a long time and it was all transparent and everybody knew about it," Kerimli said.
    "With this (accusation), the prosecutor's office of our republic wants to change the agenda in Azerbaijan, as there is too much talk lately about the corruption of Azerbaijani regime, especially after it became public that Azerbaijani authorities have stolen more them 48 billion (USD) of Azerbaijan's money over the last 19 years. This is their way of changing our agenda., (but) they won't succeed," Kerimli added.
    Some opposition activists said the accusation has targeted Kerimli in order to prevent him from participating in the 2013 presidential election in Azerbaijan.
    The leader of the Classic Popular Front Party, however, which has six out of 125 seats in Azerbaijan's parliament, suggested that everyone involved in the accusation should meet to discuss the situation.
    "The cause of (President) Abulfaz bey's (Elchibey) death is described in his medical history, and other documents on the cause of his death. We have it all in the document provided by the military hospital of Gyulkhane (in Turkey). But at the same time the information about Elchibey's poisoning does exist as well. He (Elchibey) talked about it himself and it was discussed within his close circle before his death. We should sit together and discuss everything, to find out all facts and come to a common conclusion," leader of the Classic Popular Front Party Mirmahmud Miraliogli said.
    Miraliogli was with Elchibey in Turkey during the former president's medical treatment period and he was the one who made public Elchibey's political will after his death.
    Neither Khafiz Gadjiyev nor Mirmahmud Miraliogli, however, have revealed more details, dates or circumstances surrounding the conversations about Elchibey's alleged poisoning. They have also not said why they waited 12 years to make their accusations public.
    Kerimli and his ally Isa Gambar of Musavat are seen as the strongest opposition leaders in the country and neither of them are represented in its countries legislative body, the National Assembly of Azerbaijan.
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