Famous football player imprisoned on fraud charges in Baku

Mashalla Akhmedov, one of the best forwards of Baku’s football club ‘Neftchi’ of all time, will be spending the next eight years in prison, after the city’ grave crimes court has found him guilty of involvement in a large-scale fraud scheme on January 30.

The sentence is one year less than what the state prosecutor has sought for him. Akhmedov was taken to prison right from the courtroom.

In his final word, Akhmedov said he himself had fallen prey to fraudsters. “My partner and I ran a joint business of importing stone slabs from Iran until, at one point, we found ourselves in a disagreement related to the business,” news agency APA quotes him. “Then he [Yusif Azizov] and his people started blackmailing me. I don’t know what they want from me. I am a well-known person, and my arrest must be playing into somebody’s hands.”

Mashalla Akhmedov’s case has been under investigation since as far back as December 2015. He offered to give 30,000 AZM and an apartment as a damage compensation to the plaintiff, however Azizov refused to be appeased.

– Mashalla Akhmedov forwarded 260 games for Baku’s ‘Neftchi’ and scored 64 goals between 1977 and 1979. In 1986, he participated in a match as part of the USSR Olympic team.

– 2008 until recently, he has worked for Azerbaijan’s regional football association alongside his former ‘Neftchi’ fellow player Iskander Javadov.