Azerbaijani Interior Ministry, State Security Service, Prosecutor General's Office have conducted joint special complex operational activities to prevent criminal acts of a group of persons recruited by Iranian special services through religious propaganda, according to the joint statement of these structures.
According to the statement, in exchange for money, the persons committed actions aimed at destabilizing the situation in Azerbaijan.
Recruitment
The statement noted that Rufulla Akhundzade and Bakhtiyar Bayramov, living in Iran and collaborating with the special services of this country, recruited a resident of Azerbaijan's Tartar district Arif Jumshudov and instructed him to form a "resistance detachment" in order to create a religious state controlled by Sharia law in Azerbaijan, as well as to seize power through armed riots in the country and violent changes in the constitutional order of Azerbaijan.
Following these instructions, Jumshudov got involved his work acquaintances who promote religious radicalism - Tarzan Garashov, Sanan Mammadov, Khagani Mammadov and Igbal Akhundov. He conveyed the instructions of Akhundzade and Bayramov to the above persons at meetings, which he regularly held in his house.
Recruits' activities
Besides, Akhundzade involved Baku resident Anar Isayev to the collaboration. The detainees, calling themselves “believers”, carried out propaganda in favor of Iran and religious radicalism through social networks and at ceremonies, carried out the instructions from abroad in order to undermine the traditions of religious tolerance formed in Azerbaijan.
The gang members also organized the smuggling of drugs purposefully sent from Iran, directed the funds received to promote religious radicalism and finance other subversive activities in Azerbaijan.
