Azernews.Az

BAKU - An Azerbaijani scientist who was recently released from jail in Iran intends to file a lawsuit against the company he worked for in the neighboring country.

Rashid Aliyev, who was charged with spying, blamed Sazan Electronics Industry Company for his detention.

"My rights were crudely violated," he told a news conference in Baku on Wednesday. "The company I worked for was to ensure the safety of its employees, but it failed to do so."

Aliyev, who served as a senior scholar at the Baku State University’s physics scientific research institute, was arrested in Iran two years ago. The scientist traveled to Iran in 2006 to work for the Sazan Electronics Industry Company in the city of Semnan, east of Tehran. Two years later he was charged with sending information on laser technology and electronic chips to Azerbaijan and sentenced to three years in prison.

Aliyev said he had not signed an agreement with the Iranian company on implementing confidential projects.

"We were primarily producing civil laser technology. The products we produced were selling successfully. Then the military placed orders, and I refused to do this job for them."

The scholar said human rights are blatantly violated in Iran, the situation in the legal realm is aggravating, and people facing charges are not even allowed to hire defense attorneys.

"When I was arrested, Iranian intellectuals said that the charges brought against me were very harsh and I could be executed."

Aliyev said he had experienced an enormous psychological shock during his two-year-long imprisonment. "I was released from prison to go home ten days ago, and I am having serious health problems."

Aliyev said he was unaware of the purpose of his arrest and the grounds for his release.

"I was accused of spying. I could not explain to them that their company had invited me there as a specialist; that ‘I learned this technology in Azerbaijan and am applying it in your country’. How could it be that I would transfer these technologies to Azerbaijan? This was an absolutely absurd charge. But eventually justice was served and I was freed."