Trial of website editor-in-chief who extorted money from officials begins

A preparatory court hearing was held in the criminal case of the editor-in-chief of the deryaz.az website, the founder of the Dəryaz newspaper, Gabil Taghiyev, who is accused of extorting money by threatening the heads of more than twenty different government agencies, Oxu.Az reports. At the trial chaired by Kamil Aliyev, a judge of the Baku Court of Grave Crimes, the defendant’s lawyer asked to change the measure of restraint in the form of arrest against his client and replace the punishment with an alternative one.

The court did not grant the petition and decided to transfer the criminal case to judicial investigation.

It should be noted that Gabil Taghiyev was detained by employees of the Main Department for Combating Organized Crime of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in September 2024 based on complaints from citizens. A criminal case was initiated against him under the article of the Criminal Code on extortion.

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