Suspects detained over alleged plot to attack foreign embassy in Baku

Operational and investigative measures carried out by Azerbaijan’s State Security Service (SSS) have raised well-founded suspicions that three Azerbaijani citizens were preparing to carry out a terrorist attack on a foreign country’s embassy in Baku on the grounds of religious hostility.

Citing the State Security Service, Azernews reports that the suspects are Ilgar Ilham oglu Guliyev, born in 2000 and known by the religious alias “Abu Zar al-Muhajir”; Amin Elshad oglu Piriyev, born in 2005 and known as “Abdurashid”; and Elvin Sanan oglu Alizadeh, born in 2005 and using the alias “Abdurrahman al-Azari.”

The SSS reported that the individuals had established criminal links with members of the ISIS terrorist organization’s “Wilayat Khorasan” armed wing. Acting as a premeditated group, they allegedly acquired items intended to be used as weapons to carry out a terrorist attack on a foreign state’s embassy in Azerbaijan.

The suspects were detained by SSS officers as they approached the area where the embassy is located.

A criminal case has been opened against Ilgar Guliyev, Amin Piriyev, and Elvin Alizadeh under Articles 28 and 214.2.1, 28 and 214.2.3, and 28 and 214.2.6 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The charges relate to preparing an act of terrorism motivated by religious hostility, committed by a group acting in prior collusion and involving the use of objects as weapons.

By a court decision, all three individuals have been placed under pretrial detention. Investigative and operational measures in the case are currently ongoing.