A court in Baku arrested two of the eight Russians for four months, whom the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan detained on charges of involvement in organized crime groups after a diplomatic conflict between Russia and Azerbaijan, reports the publication Minval.
Their names are not mentioned. The media publish photos and videos near and from the courtroom, showing that the young men are severely beaten.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan, the eight Russians allegedly belonged to two criminal groups and were engaged in smuggling and online drug trafficking from Iran.
«Important Stories»* established that at least two of them are Russian IT specialists-relocators. They are 41-year-old graduate of the Higher School of Economics and Dresden University of Applied Sciences Anton Drachev, founder of the successful Russian IT startup Airo, and 30-year-old programmer Dmitry Bezugly, who worked at VK and «Yandex».
Today, the court in Baku also sent to a pre-trial detention center the director of the Russian state agency «Sputnik Azerbaijan» Igor Kartavykh and chief editor Evgeny Belousov.
The detentions occurred after a diplomatic scandal between Moscow and Baku, caused by the death of two Azerbaijanis and the detention of several others during raids by security forces in the Urals. Four of those detained as a result of the raids were sent to a pre-trial detention center, and two more are in the hospital.
Security forces in Russia also detained Voronezh entrepreneur of Azerbaijani origin Yusuf Khalilov, whom pro-government media call a co-owner of the Alekseevsky market and a «watchman» from the Azerbaijani diaspora, and the head of the Azerbaijani diaspora in the Urals Shahin Shikhlinsky along with his son.
* Recognized in Russia as a «foreign agent» and «undesirable» organization.