Azerbaijan arrests 39 people in connection to Iran’s espionage network

The first wave of arrests in Azerbaijan started in November 2022

Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs announced on Wednesday that 39 people were arrested in connection to an Iranian “espionage network” after previous reports saying that seven suspects were detained.

The network was working in three directions: collecting information on security installations and VIPs, spreading disinformation through social media, inciting anti-governmental protests based on claims of the “non-Muslim policy” of the government. According to Azeri reports, the group is connected not only with Iranian intelligence, but also with the Hüseyniyyun Islamist group, which was created by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from the adherents of their ideology, who fled to Iran from Azerbaijan.

The first wave of arrests in Azerbaijan started in November 2022. One of the arrested then was involved in an unsuccessful terrorist attack against Israeli businessmen in Cyprus in 2021.

Many of the detained were trained in Syria in the camps of the Liwa Fatemiyoun armed group, created by the IRGC. The Lebanese Hezbollah provided assistance in training these militants.

An analyst from Tehran International Studies & Research Institute, Ehsan Movahedian, an author of an anti-Semitic cartoon depicting Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev with a huge nose and sidelocks, wearing a yarmulke, claimed that the recently detained Iranian agents are “mere journalists,” who supported “keeping brotherly relations with Iran” and protested against “turning Azerbaijan into a Zionist colony.”

Source: i24news