An influential opponent of the Azerbaijani regime died on Tuesday the 1stAhem October, in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), after receiving around twenty stab wounds on Sunday. Vidadi Isgandarli, a 62-year-old former prosecutor who has been a political refugee in France since 2017, was allegedly attacked by three men in his home early in the morning, according to the first elements of the murder investigation opened by the Mulhouse justice system. police.
According to his brother Oqtaï, the screams uttered by Mr. Isgandarli alerted the neighborhood and caused the attackers to flee. Still conscious, he managed to call his brother, who, in turn, alerted the police. He was only able to give very few details before losing consciousness, having lost a lot of blood. At the Mulhouse court, a source from the prosecution explains to World that aggression “It took place between 5 am and 6:30 am. The neighborhood investigation found no witnesses and the videos from the surveillance cameras have not yet been used.. As for the mobile, it is “A priori political, but it is one way among others”.
The Azerbaijani embassy in France, contacted about the murder, did not respond.
The victim’s relatives and Azerbaijani opponents refugees in France see the hand of the authoritarian regime in Baku behind this murder. “Vidadi Isgandarli was, like me, the subject of threats”explains Azerbaijani journalist Ganimat Zahid, 61, from Strasbourg. “I have known him since the late 1990s and we have remained very close. He was a prosecutor until the early 2000s, after which he resigned to dedicate himself to the defense of human rights. » Arrested in 2011 while demonstrating against Ilham Aliev’s regime, Vidadi Isgandarli was sentenced to three years in prison by an Azerbaijani court. He benefited from a presidential amnesty in the middle of his sentence and continued his political activity, before emigrating to France with his family.
Fourth murder of exiles
Become a blogger in France, he feeds his YouTube channel (47,500 subscribers) with vengeful messages against the Azerbaijani head of state and his entourage. “I do not rule out that Vidadi has been attacked for the insults he uttered”points out Ganimat Zahid, who adds: “Which in no way justifies his murder. Either way, we’re all on the list of opponents to kill. »
According to the journalist, Vidadi Isgandarli is the fourth Azerbaijani opposition member killed in exile by the regime in four years. In 2021, Baïram Mammedov, Vüqar Rza and Hüseyn Bakikhanov were killed, respectively, in Türkiye, Belgium and Georgia.
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