22-02-2012 10:55:33

Azerbaijan nabs terror cell linked to Iran secret service, Hezbollah

Azerbaijan’s National Security Ministry has nabbed a cell linked to the Iranian secret service Sepah and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group that planned to stage terror attacks on foreign nationals in the country, the Azerbaijani state television channel AzTV quoted the ministry as saying on Tuesday.

The ministry said in a statement that members of the cell had collected intelligence data on orders from Sepah and acquired large quantities of firearms, ammunition and explosives in order to carry out terror acts.

The organized crime group is said to have been set up by a Sepah employee named Hamid and the head of Hezbollah terror organization’s military operations wing called “Resistance”, Haji Abbas.

Karbalayi Natig Karimov, a member of the Elders Council in the Nardaran settlement of Baku, a stronghold of Islamic tradition, has told APA news agency that a group of people was seized in Azerbaijan in the past few days on charges of illegal possession of arms, high treason and drug trafficking. He said the group, which was detained in an operation carried out by the National Security Ministry and interior bodies, mostly included residents of Baku villages, particularly, Nardaran.

He said he knows the 20 people who were detained. “Most of them are our relatives and close people.”

The detainees include Anar Bayramli, who is said to be the reporter of Iran’s Sahar TV channel and the Iranian Fars news agency in Azerbaijan, and Ramil Dadashov, the driver for Sahar TV’s office in Sumgayit.

The Iranian embassy has issued a protest to Azerbaijan, demanding their immediate release and claiming that their detention runs counter to international norms, Fars reported. 

Anar Bayramli, a 32-year-old Azerbaijani citizen, was arrested in Baku last Friday after 387 grams of heroin were found on him, police officials said.

Bayramli is said to have resisted the police during his detention.

His family members reportedly claimed that the drugs had been planted by law enforcers.

Iranian embassy spokesman Abbas Isgandari said the diplomatic mission does not accept allegations that the TV channel's employees had violated the law.

"The detained persons are conscientious, honest people and they are professionals," Isgandari said.

He believes the detention of Sahar employees is aimed at damaging bilateral relations.

Ali Hasanov, the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration's head of social and political issues, told APA news agency that there are no reporters or other employees of the Iranian TV channel with the mentioned name accredited in Azerbaijan.

Hasanov said the Iranian broadcaster's officially registered representative in the country is known.

"There are records in this regard at the Foreign Ministry and other pertinent bodies. But there is no Iranian TV channel reporter under the name cited in the media," he said.

Bayramli's employer, Sahar TV, has been accused by the Azerbaijani authorities of broadcasting propaganda into neighboring Azerbaijan.

The arrests come amid tensions between the Azerbaijani and Iranian governments. Tehran has reportedly been displeased by friendlier links between Azerbaijan and Israel in recent months, while Azerbaijan has accused Iran of sponsoring Islamic radicals on its territory.

Azerbaijani law enforcers in mid-January nabbed a cell linked to the Iranian secret service that planned terror attacks reportedly targeting the Israeli ambassador in Baku and a rabbi. Iran responded by claiming that Azerbaijan allows its territory to be used for anti-Iranian spying activity.

Fears of Iranian plotting against its smaller neighbor have been prominent for years in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani authorities have said they thwarted a plan by agents of Iran and Hezbollah militia to set off a car bomb near the Israeli embassy four years ago, and a plot targeting the U.S. and British embassies in 2007.

TAGS: Azerbaijan, National Security Ministry, Iranian secret service, Sepah, Lebanon, Hezbollah group, Elders Council, Nardaran settlement, Anar Bayramli, Ramil Dadashov, Ali Hasanov