Azerbaijan moves to sue Russia over Aktau plane crash after seven months
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has announced that his country is preparing documents to appeal to international courts against Russia regarding the crash of an Azerbaijani Airlines (AZAL) plane near Aktau.
Source: Minval, an Azerbaijani media outlet, as reported by European Pravda
Details: Aliyev stated that the circumstances of the incident are "as clear as day", yet Azerbaijan has received no meaningful response from Russia after seven months.
He noted that the prosecutor general of Azerbaijan sends requests to the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee but is met only with the reply: "The investigation is ongoing." The president described this stance as counterproductive and reaffirmed Baku’s intention to seek international justice.
The Azerbaijani president has said that the country informed Russia of its preparation of a dossier for a corresponding lawsuit. He referenced the investigation into the Malaysian Boeing crash, which lasted over a decade. "We are ready to wait ten years, but justice must win. And unfortunately, the situation, which is currently in limbo, does not contribute to the development of bilateral relations between Russia and Azerbaijan," he said.
Aliyev emphasised that Azerbaijan has a clear understanding of what happened to the AZAL plane and Russian officials possess this information too. "The question arises: why don’t they do as any neighbour would do in a similar situation?" he remarked.
Aliyev outlined Azerbaijan’s demands: Russia’s guilty plea, prosecution of those responsible for downing the plane, payment of compensation to the families of the victims and compensation for damages suffered by AZAL.
Background:
- On 25 December, an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer aircraft en route from Baku to Grozny crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau on the Caspian Sea, killing 38 people.
- Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev stated at the time that the plane had been shot down from the ground.
- On 4 February, a source within Azerbaijan's government told Reuters that they had conclusive evidence that the plane was downed by a Russian Pantsir-S air defence system.
- In early July, Azerbaijani journalists released a recording that contains an order to open fire on an Azerbaijan Airlines flight.
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