“I recall that after Emin Huseynov had hidden for 10 months in the Swiss Embassy in Azerbaijan, the Swiss government entered into negotiations with the Azerbaijani government for his removal from the country.”
According to Modern.az, political scientist Yegana Hajiyeva wrote this on social media.
According to the news published at that time by the Swiss website "Tagesanzeiger", Emin Huseynov left Azerbaijan accompanied by Didier Burkhalter, a representative of the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The publication also wrote that Huseynov's release cost the Swiss government approximately 200,000 AZN in tax debt payment, in addition to all other incidental expenses.
In other words, the Swiss government, at the expense of Swiss taxpayers, had settled the tax debts of an individual who had received grants abroad for many years and had not paid his taxes.
In return, Emin Huseynov had also undertaken an obligation before the Swiss government to renounce his Azerbaijani citizenship.
“The absurdity of the matter was also that the Swiss government had asked the Azerbaijani government for this fact to remain confidential,” Yegana Hajiyeva noted.
The political scientist also addressed questions to the Swiss Embassy in Baku:
“Now it is necessary to ask the Swiss Embassy in Baku: for which services of Emin Huseynov were his tax debts paid at the expense of Swiss taxpayers?
What is the role of the Swiss state in Emin Huseynov's career and subsequent activities?”
Let us recall that Emin Huseynov previously worked as a journalist, NGO chairman, and activist in Azerbaijan.
When serious legal violations were discovered in the activities of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS), which he headed, he evaded legal responsibility. In August 2014, E. Huseynov, accused of tax evasion, fled and hid when a search was conducted at the office of IRFS, which he headed.
E. Huseynov's embezzlement of large grant funds allocated from abroad for IRFS and his failure to pay taxes angered his colleagues who were part of the organization with him in those years, and his friends disowned him.
At that time, E. Huseynov, trying to evade legal responsibility, applied to several embassies in Baku for asylum but received a refusal.
Finally, the Swiss Embassy provided him with a hiding place and helped him leave Azerbaijan after keeping him for 10 months.
At that time, E. Huseynov, to evade arrest, went from his hiding apartment to the Swiss Embassy dressed in women's clothes so as not to attract the attention of law enforcement officers.
In June 2015, after negotiations with the Azerbaijani government, E. Huseynov left Baku on the plane of Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter.
He was also stripped of his citizenship of the Republic of Azerbaijan. E. Huseynov himself wrote a letter to the Azerbaijani government requesting to be deprived of his citizenship, and this was granted in accordance with Azerbaijani legislation.
E. Huseynov is married to an American woman. He currently lives in Switzerland and is engaged in a smear campaign against Azerbaijan.
