The trial process has begun for the group members accused of demanding more than 600,000 manats in total from several citizens by threatening to spread their intimate images and compromising information - Tabriz Yusifzade, Senan Valiyev, Toghrul Alizade, and Puste Mammadova (editor’s note: the names are pseudonyms) in a criminal case.
At the hearing led by Judge Namig Karimov of the Baku Serious Crimes Court, public prosecutor Tural Yagubov announced the indictment.
The indictment states that at the end of August 2025, Tabriz Yusifzade met with his acquaintance Puste Mammadova and his relative Senan Valiyev. During the meeting, they planned to secretly film the bedroom footage of Elmar Huseynov (editor’s note: name is pseudonym), with whom Puste had previously had an intimate relationship, in order to extort money from him. Later, Tabriz Yusifzade collected information on Elmar Huseynov’s surveillance, residence and workplace, and other data, and offered Toghrul Alizade 20-50 manats each time for expenses to quickly deliver photos and videos to himself as well as to the group members. He accepted this offer.
According to the prepared plan, in late August 2025, group member Puste Mammadova invited Elmar Huseynov to an intimate meeting via phone contact. Puste informed Tabriz Yusifzade about the time and place of the meeting, who then informed another group member, Senan Valiyev.
They purchased small-scale cameras that are sold on TikTok for 110 manats for this purpose.
Tabriz came with Puste to the rented apartment — the residence where the intimate meeting was planned. They placed the camera hidden in the living room and set it up to work.
That day, around noon, Puste brought Elmar to the apartment and by placing him naked in the room with the hidden camera, she achieved her goal.
Unaware of the filming, the victim Elmar Huseynov left the scene, got into his “Toyota Land Cruiser” car and started driving. As per the plan, on Tabriz Yusifzade’s instruction, Toghrul Alizade began to follow him.
After obtaining information about Elmar’s residence based on information provided by Toghrul Alizade, Tabriz Yusifzade himself went to the location to verify the accuracy of the observation.
Continuing their criminal intentions, based on the plan, Puste Mammadova again invited Elmar Huseynov to another house for an intimate meeting.
This time, Tabriz and Puste hid the phone in the furniture and prepared it to record facts. Puste laid Elmar down on the bed in the bedroom, performed sexual acts, and all of this was recorded by the camera.
Afterwards, Tabriz Yusifzade and Senan Valiyev discussed and agreed that Elmar’s workplace must be identified in order to determine the amount of money to demand from him.
After that, they called Elmar, but since he was drunk, he treated them rudely and ended the call.
The investigation established that in addition, in late August 2025, Tabriz Yusifzade discussed with his acquaintances Puste Mammadova and Senan Valiyev and made a plan regarding another acquaintance that Puste considered wealthy, Aslan Shirinov, with whom she had previously been intimate. In this meeting, they planned to invite Aslan to the house through Puste, secretly record his intimate footage by camera, and demand 100,000 manats from him.
Puste again invited Aslan Shirinov to an intimate meeting, and they obtained his intimate images through a hidden camera they installed in the planned apartment.
On September 27, 2025, Tabriz called Aslan on WhatsApp threatening to release his intimate images and spread compromising information about him inside the country. Aslan ended communication and the scheme failed.
Additionally, in late August 2025, Tabriz Yusifzade discussed with acquaintances Puste Mammadova and Senan Valiyev and planned regarding another acquaintance, Umid Hasanov, whom Puste also considered wealthy and had previously been intimate with. They planned to invite Umid to the house through Puste, secretly record his intimate images by hidden camera, and demand 510,000 manats from him.
Following the plan, Puste invited Umid to an intimate meeting and they obtained his intimate footage through a hidden camera installed in the planned apartment.
On October 15, 2025, via WhatsApp, they called Umid Hasanov and informed him they would expose his intimate videos in the country, demanding initially 2,000 manats.
Fearing this, the victim sent 1,000 manats through money transfer.
On October 20, 2025, during an operational-search activity carried out by law enforcement officers, group members Tabriz Yusifzade, Puste Mammadova, Toghrul Alizade, and Senan Valiyev were arrested.
The group members have been charged under Article 156.1 of the Criminal Code (violating the privacy of personal life, illegal collection, dissemination, sale, or transfer to others of documents, video and photo shooting materials, and audio recordings containing personal and family life secrets), Articles 29, 182.2.1 (attempted extortion committed by a group of individuals acting in concert), 29, 182.2.2 (attempted repeated extortion), 29, 182.3.2 (attempted extortion to obtain a large amount of property), 182.2.1 (extortion committed by a group acting in concert), 182.2.2 (repeated extortion), 182.4 (extortion to obtain a particularly large amount of property), and 302.1 (violation of legislation on operational-search activities through use of technical means intended for secret information acquisition)./Unikal