On August 22, the son-in-law of one of the most influential people in the country, Ramiz Mehdiyev, a former aide to the president and who many consider to be a éminence grise, was sentenced to 15 days in prison after organizing a wedding in Baku, against the country’s anti epidemic-rules, reported jamnews. 

Most of the guests at the wedding and those involved were high-profile public figures. The father of the bride, Mehdiyev’s son-in-law, was a former parliamentarian, and shares the same name as Azerbaijan’s president– Ilham Aliyev. The groom’s father, Rovshan Mustafayev, a commander of the State Security Service, also received a 15-day sentence.

The 82-year-old Mehdiyev has been the permanent head of the presidential administration of Azerbaijan since 1995. During the Soviet era, he held a similar position under President Ilham Aliyev’s father, Heydar Aliyev. In October 2019, when he retired, he took over as president of the Academy of Sciences and is a member of the Security Council of Azerbaijan.

In the beginning, the authorities tried to pass off the wedding as “an ordinary feast,” Ehsan Zakhidov, spokesman for the ministry of the interior, told reporters. Then he reported that he had not said this, and only then did the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs issue a statement that the perpetrators would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

The reaction of the parliamentarian Siyavush Novruzov, who was also a guest at this wedding, aroused particular anger amongst the public. He defiantly told reporters: “Yes, I was at the wedding and made the right decision,” but afterwards made an absolutely different statement, saying that Mehdiyev “deceived him.”  Afterwards, the ruling New Azerbaijan Party reported that Novruzov had left the post of its deputy chairman, writing a statement "of his own free will." Novruzov’s wife, Sabina Aliyeva, the Ombudsman of Azerbaijan, was also fined for attending the wedding.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, these individuals were punished under Article 211.1 (violation of the anti-epidemic regime, sanitary-hygienic and quarantine regimes) of the Administrative Offenses Code. They were fined 400 manats ($ 240) each. For the same amount, fines were awarded to former Minister of Communications Ali Abbasov and former rector of BSU Abel Maharramov.