This evidence-led archive covers nine documented cases, including the 2018 Ganja assassination attempt, the 1994 Baku Metro bombing, the 2009 State Oil Academy shooting, journalist killings and Manvel Saribekyan’s death in custody. It separates convictions, procedural violations, identified actors, allegations and state-responsibility findings.
Criminal convictions are documented for the Ziya Bünyadov assassination, the 2018 Ganja assassination attempt, the 1994 Baku Metro bombing, the 2009 Oil Academy case and the 2015 assault that caused journalist Rasim Aliyev’s death.
Seven defendants were convicted in 2001; contemporary and official records said alleged organizers remained wanted.
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Yunis Safarov received life imprisonment and nine co-defendants received 18–20 years; final review preserved the verdicts amid documented torture allegations.
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Twelve victims were killed. The identified gunman died at the scene; three alleged associates received life terms and a fourth received eleven years.
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Aliyev died after a group assault. Five men received prison terms of nine to 13 years, upheld on appeal and confirmed by the Supreme Court.
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Fourteen people were killed. Rahib Maksimov’s death sentence was commuted to life; the ECHR later found his cassation proceedings unfair without deciding guilt.
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Hundreds were recognized as victims after a military espionage inquiry. Eighteen personnel later received torture convictions, while wider command responsibility remains disputed.
Read the sourced case file →No individual criminal conviction was verified in these three files, although the European Court established state responsibility in Saribekyan’s case.
The European Court held Azerbaijan responsible for Saribekyan’s death, torture and an ineffective investigation; no individual conviction was identified.
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The Monitor editor was shot outside his apartment. Authorities named suspects, but no murder conviction was verified; the European Court found the investigation ineffective.
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The writer and freelance journalist was stabbed near his home and died four days later. No final conviction identifying the attacker or an organizer was verified.
Read the sourced case file →A case is marked adjudicated when reliable records establish criminal responsibility through final convictions or an equivalently conclusive outcome. Four files now meet that threshold: the Ganja assassination attempt, Baku Metro bombing, Oil Academy shooting and fatal assault on Rasim Aliyev. Three files remain unresolved at the level of individual criminal accountability.
Safarov’s life sentence and nine co-defendant terms survived appeal in 2022 and Supreme Court review in 2024. Torture and fair-trial allegations are documented separately.
No final individual conviction was verified for the murders of Elmar Huseynov or Rafiq Tagi. Suspect designations and theories are not treated as verdicts.
The Court held Azerbaijan responsible for Manvel Saribekyan’s death, torture and ineffective investigation. That state-responsibility judgment is not an individual criminal conviction.
The illustrations use Baku, Ganja, press, court, archive and memorial motifs without claiming to portray victims, suspects, scenes or evidence.
Eight verified case files are currently published.
The Ganja assassination attempt, Baku Metro bombing, Oil Academy shooting and fatal assault on Rasim Aliyev have documented final or reviewed criminal outcomes.
No. Defendants challenged the charges, and serious torture and fair-trial allegations were documented. Domestic appellate and cassation courts nevertheless upheld the verdicts.
No individual criminal conviction was verified for the murders of Elmar Huseynov or Rafiq Tagi, or for the torture and custodial death of Manvel Saribekyan.
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