Azerbaijan’s security services announced the exposure and prevention of an extremist group planning sabotage and hostage-taking within the country.
According to the State Security Service, an investigation revealed that Azerbaijani citizens Fakhraddin Shahmurov (born 1984), Jalal Muradov (born 1960), and Kamran Babaev (born 1998), in collaboration with others, formed a criminal network aimed at carrying out serious crimes against the constitutional foundations of the state.
“The extremists held secret meetings within the country and created closed groups on social media to plan sabotage against state institutions,” the State Security Service stated.
“During one such meeting, attended by a foreign national, the flag of the criminal organization was presented. Fakhraddin Shahmurov was tasked with leading the development of plans for crimes to be carried out in the name of the group’s objectives.
Shahmurov and his accomplices devised a plan to seize a customs post at the state border and take hostages to make demands. The aim was to undermine the country’s defense and economic security and take employees and others at the post hostage to further the criminal group’s objectives. Thanks to timely measures, the group’s unlawful activities were thwarted,” the statement said.
Shahmurov, Muradov, and Babaev have been charged under multiple articles of Azerbaijan’s Criminal Code, all three have been arrested, other individuals are also being investigated, the State Security Service informed.
