BAKU (Reuters) – A prominent Azerbaijani economist and opposition politician was charged on Monday under a law on counterfeit currency and placed in detention for nearly four months to await trial, his lawyer told reporters.
Gubad Ibadoghlu, head of the small Democracy and Welfare Party, denies the accusation, his lawyer Zibeyda Sadigova said.
She said Ibadoghlu had been arrested after police said they found $40,000 at an apartment registered in his name. But she said he was not living there and “this money has nothing to do with Gubad Ibadoghlu”.
It was not clear if the alleged sum was real or forged.
Sadigova said the case was based on a claim by a person that Ibadoghlu did not know that the politician “gave him dollars”.
Apart from his political activity, Ibadoghlu is a noted economist and a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics, according to the LSE website. The court ordered him to be detained for three months and 26 days while awaiting trial.
Ibadoghlu’s party is not represented in the parliament of Azerbaijan, a tightly controlled country in the southern Caucasus that clamps down hard on dissent.
The United States said in March it was troubled by a law on political parties signed by President Ilham Aliyev and urged Azerbaijan to “respect fundamental freedoms, including of association”
(Reporting by Nailia Bagirova; writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
