MINISTRY OF NATIONAL SECURITY
STATE SECURITY SERVICE
National Security officers, involved in violence and tortures
Shihaliyev Movlam
Ministry of national security
Major-General Movlam Mammadismayil oglu Shykhaliyev was the head of the Main Investigation Department of the Ministry of National Security.
He took an active part in many crimes in the MNB. It was at his orders that prisoners were tortured in the MNB SIZO. Arif Yunusov was tortured at his specific orders in August-September 2014.
Torture took place at nights in the basement of the MNB 3 to 4 times a week for two months. They demanded admission of espionage for Armenian intelligence services.
Torture included: beatings with rubber batons and water bottles, wet curled towels, hanging over handcuffs on the celling rack, asphyxiation with plastic bags over the head, deprivation of sleep.
Movlam Shikhaliyev also personally ordered torture of journalist Parviz Hashimli in 2013 and “Jehovah’s Witnesses” member Irina Zakharchenko and others.
On October 17, 2015, by the decree of President Ilham Aliyev, Eldar Mahmudov was dismissed from the post of Minister of National Security. In late October 2015, Major-General Movlam Shykhaliyev was also removed from his post, but escaped arrest and allowed to retire.
On December 14, 2015, Ministry of National Security was restructured in two separate services: the State Security Service and the Foreign Intelligence Service.