The term was later republished and used by English-language media outlets[3] and in the corruption report of the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights.
Elshad Abdullayev, who holds a doctorate degree in jurisprudence, had been known as the rector of the Azerbaijan International University which functioned from 1997 to 2010 and for the last four years was a focus of investigation of the Attorney General's Office over reported cases of corruption and illegal student admission.
[7] According to him, he had managed to collect information about a "gang of criminals" related to the kidnapping and submitted it to the Ministry of National Security and the Attorney General's Office in 2008 and 2009.
[8] In a 7 December 2012 interview to Radio Liberty, Abdullayev said he had been forced to abandon his plan to win a seat in the parliament back in 2006 under pressure from the Presidential Administration.
Abdullayev had allegedly been told that the US Embassy demanded from the government of Azerbaijan that an opposition party candidate be given a chance to win a seat.
Abdullayev claimed to have paid it to the head of the Presidential Administration Ramiz Mehdiyev and that Member of Parliament Gular Ahmadova served as the intermediary.
The video featured himself, Member of Parliament Gular Ahmadova and her friend Sevinj Babayeva, sitting in an office and discussing events around the 2005 parliamentary election.
[8] Abdullayev released another video on 6 October 2012, in which Gular Ahmadova is heard talking about various high-ranking government officials compiling lists of MP candidates which they would like to see in the National Assembly following the election.
[14] In the next video released on 21 October 2012, Abdullayev is seen with someone who calls himself Rovshan Abbasguliyev, a Ministry of Internal Affairs employee in the Seventh Division responsible for secret services.
[16] In early November 2012, three people were arrested with regard to Mahir Abdullayev's case, among them former assistant of the First Deputy of the Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Vagif Huseynov and businessman Arzu Kazimov.
[17] In the fourth video, which Abdullayev released on 18 November 2012 and dated 2007, he is shown talking with a person who claims to be then chief justice of the Narimanov rayon court Aghababa Babayev.
Babayeva reveals to Abdullayev that following a phone call from Gular Ahmadova, Ramiz Mehdiyev arranged for police groups to arrive at her constituency and "take measures" to secure her victory and that this was done immediately.
[20] Commenting on this, Gular Ahmadova's former opposition rival Eldar Namazov confirmed that in 2005 the police had attacked his observers in four polling stations and destroyed their protocols.
The Attorney General's Office later accused Kazimov of accepting US$1.5 million from Abdullayev for promising to set his brother free through his "connections" in the government.
[21] Responding to the video posting, Rovshana Aliyeva made a statement saying she had nothing to do with Arzu Kazimov and claimed Elshad Abdullayev had threatened her with a gun a number of times.
[22] During a court hearing on 16 July 2013, Rovshana Aliyeva admitted she had passed Arzu Kazimov's contacts to Elshad Abdullayev through the latter's younger brother Eldaniz who was also her acquaintance.
Dated 2004, it shows himself discussing his brother's fate with Rasim Ildyrymzadeh, assistant chief of the Heydar Aliyev Airport police department and a distant relative of the Interior Minister Ramil Usubov.
[26] In the following video filmed in 2009 Elshad Abdullayev is seen submitting what he claimed to be a package containing all the records of payments he made in an attempt to locate his brother to a Ministry of National Security employee Rasul Rasulov and the latter signing for it.
Sahib, in turn, states during the meeting that Mahir Abdullayev has been taken hostage over a woman and that his kidnappers would agree to return him for money, but required safety guarantee.
She mentions the names of Ramiz Mehdiyev and Parliament speaker Ogtay Asadov in claiming that they expect Abdullayev to transfer another US$100,000 in return for making his clinic and his university "flourish" and his brother released from captivity.
She assures Abdullayev that this time the money will not disappear and "they know perfectly well" that Babayeva knows First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva and her sister Nargiz Pashayeva, whom she can "always complain to".
She tells Abdullayev that he has been criticized for cooperation with "too many people" on this matter, having gotten the President, Ramiz Mehdiyev and Ogtay Asadov involved in this affair, and for avoiding those that have voluntarily stepped forward to help him.
It was said that Abdullayev voluntarily paid Vagif Huseynov (one of the three men arrested in November 2012) US$1 million to make use of the latter's connections in the Cabinet of Ministers.
After the release of the video in which she is having a one-on-one conversation with Elshad Abdullayev and repeatedly mentions Ramiz Mehdiyev's name, it was announced that Babayeva had disappeared.
On 24 December 2012, the Attorney General's Office initiated an international search through Interpol on an unrelated case of fraud allegedly committed by Babayeva in 2009.
[55] In April 2013, Elshad Abdullayev wrote an open letter with regard to his brother's disappearance, in which he named an alleged perpetrator, Akif Chovdarov, a general of the Ministry of National Security.
[57] Abdullayev named Akif Chovdarov as the person behind the assassinations of Elmar Huseynov (which was previously also claimed by Eynulla Fatullayev) and Rafiq Tağı and the assault and intimidation of opposition journalists Agil Khalil and Khadija Ismayilova.
[56] In November 2015, General Chovdarov was fired and later arrested following the government's unrelated crackdown on corruption and extortion among high-ranking officials of the Ministry of National Security.
[14] Lawyer Ayyub Karimov thinks the delay in locating Mahir Abdullayev stems from the fact that the people involved in the kidnapping have powerful connections in the government or police forces.