A court in Yekaterinburg has extended the arrest of Shahin Shikhlinsky, the former head of the city's Azerbaijani diaspora, until December 30. He is accused of attempting to murder a businessman in 2010.
On July 1, Shahin Shikhlinsky was detained by special forces. He was in a car that accidentally struck a security officer, with his son driving. The elder Shikhlinsky was later released after being questioned as a witness in the Safarov brothers' case. During the court hearing, the younger Shikhlinsky stated that the collision with the security officer was accidental and that he regretted the incident. However, he was also arrested, and later, his father.
It is noteworthy that persecution of Azerbaijani diaspora leaders has become more frequent in Russia. For example, the head of the Azerbaijani diaspora in the Chelyabinsk region, Arshad Khankishiyev, was stripped of his Russian citizenship. Yusif Khalilov, the leader of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Voronezh, was also arrested. Russian authorities also stripped Bakhtiyar Hasanov, head of the Council of National and Cultural Autonomy of Azerbaijanis, of his citizenship.
