On 29 October, Azerbaijani opposition activist Vidadi Iskenderli was attacked by three unknown men in his apartment in Mulhouse, eastern France. The assailants, wearing masks, entered through a window and beat Iskenderli, stabbing him more than 20 times.
Despite resisting and managing to push the attackers out of his apartment to call the police, Iskenderli succumbed to his injuries in the hospital. His death on 1 October was confirmed by his brother, Oktay Iskenderli, via the media outlet Turan. The funeral is expected to take place in about a week, after forensic examinations are completed.
Vidadi Iskenderli’s Political Background and Activity
According to RFI, Iskenderli led the NGO ‘Assistance to the Defence of Democracy’ in Azerbaijan. He ran as a parliamentary candidate in 2010, accusing the authorities of electoral fraud. In 2011, he was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for allegedly interfering in the work of election commissions. Iskenderli was released under an amnesty in December 2012, and in 2015, he emigrated to France, renouncing his Azerbaijani citizenship.
In exile, Iskenderli became a political blogger with a YouTube channel, where he openly criticised the Azerbaijani government in harsh and offensive terms.
RFI also cited journalist Ganimat Zahidov, currently in exile in Strasbourg, who suggested that the murder was a personal act of revenge by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. “This is Ilham Aliyev’s personal revenge. He [Iskenderli] had a very harsh rhetoric. He spoke frankly, insulted [the authorities] in his speeches, including Ilham Aliyev himself. But this is not a reason to just kill a man,” Zahidov remarked.
Zahidov also disclosed that two weeks prior, he had received information from his sources in Azerbaijan about assassination attempts targeting Azerbaijani opposition figures in Europe. He claimed that these attempts were ordered by the Aliyev family and involved individuals from Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Central Asia. Zahidov named Iskenderli, two other opposition figures living in Germany and Switzerland, and himself as potential targets. He reported this information to the police in Strasbourg.
Lack of Police Action
Zahidov expressed surprise at the inaction of French authorities. “The French police are not investigating or reacting to anything,” he said. He noted that he had previously contacted the police several times, beginning in 2017 or 2018, but this time, despite sending all relevant information to the Strasbourg police, no one had approached him.
NEWSROOM IN Investigation
A year ago, NEWSROOM IN published an investigation exposing how mercenaries connected to Azerbaijan’s security services have been operating in Europe, intimidating and physically assaulting critics of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The primary source for this investigation, Ramazan Yaman, presented the NEWSROOM IN team of journalists with compelling evidence of these activities, some of which has since been verified.
Ramazan Yaman claimed to have provided the same information to the intelligence services of Lithuania and France. However, despite the severity of the allegations, these authorities seemingly did not act on his warnings.
Ramazan Yaman’s Imprisonment and Potential Extradition to Russia
Currently, Yaman is in custody in France and faces imminent extradition to Russia.
He initially applied for asylum in France, and the process appeared to be proceeding normally. However, he told NEWSROOM IN that “strange things started happening” in the spring of 2024, leading to his detention. Now, preparations for his extradition to Russia are underway.
The court documents indicate that Russia’s request for Yaman’s extradition was made through the prosecutor’s office in Dagestan. The charges against him include allegations of financing terrorist activities and distributing illegal content via the social media platform Vkontakte.
Он сообщил NEWSROOM IN, что просил во Франции убежище и сначала процесс шел нормально. Однако потом “стали происходить странные вещи” и его задержали весной 2024 года. В итоге сейчас готовится его экстрадиция Россию.
В документах судебного заседания говорится, в частности, что запрос о выдачи Ямана во Францию направила Россия по запросу прокуратуры Дагестана. Согласно этому запросу Ямана подозревают в финансировании террористической деятельности и распространении некой противоправной информации в сети Вконтакте.
In his interview with NEWSROOM IN, Yaman expressed grave concerns about his future. He speculated that his extradition to Russia may be part of an exchange deal for a French citizen currently held in Russia. He fears that, once handed over to Russian authorities, he will eventually be transferred to Azerbaijan, where he would likely be killed in retaliation for revealing information about attacks on Azerbaijani government critics in Europe.
