Farhad Aliyev received his school education at Alar village in 1970-1980 where he was born. Having completed his secondary education with an honors diploma, in 1980 he received admission to Azerbaijan State Institute of Civil Engineering. Farhad Aliyev graduated from ASICE in 1985 and started to work in Jalilabad district. In 1985-87 he served in the Soviet army. During his education and military service, Farhad Aliyev actively participated in public works. He was elected Deputy Chairman of the Student Union at ASICE and received several awards for exemplary service in the army. He is married and has two children.
Political career
Besides public activities, Farhad Aliyev worked in several state positions during 1985-1990. At that time he headed a department in the Central Committee of the Youth Organization of Azerbaijan Republic, which played an important role in the political-public life of Azerbaijan. In 1990-1997 he headed several private companies functioning in the field of tourism, trade, construction, production. He was a member of the Political Council of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party until his arrest. In 1997 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Trade and after a while–the Minister of Trade. At this post, Farhad Aliyev undertook serious reforms for development of the private sector, simplification of export-import transactions, and liberalization of trade in general. In 1999-2001, holding the post of Minister of State Property, Farhad Aliyev took several successful steps towards creation of a unified register system of state property, re-vitalization of the functioning of institutions that were opened for privatization, securing transparency in the privatization process, and attracting foreign companies to the privatization process besides Azerbaijani citizens. In 2001, by a decree of the President of Azerbaijan, Ministries of Economy, Trade and State Property, Committee against Monopolization and for Assistance to Entrepreneurship, and State Agency for Foreign Investments were united in one state organization–Ministry of Economic Development and Farhad Aliyev was appointed the head of the Ministry. Farhad Aliyev openly criticized monopolies, abuse of power by state officials, the corrupt court system, etc., and emphasized these problems’ being obstacles on Azerbaijan’s state building and development processes. In his post he organised reforms in government administration; the abolition of government structures with parallel functions, simplification of government oversight, strengthening anti-monopolization measures, infrastructural improvements, minimizing economic dependency on oil and the development of small and medium enterprises, development of foreign economic relations, in particular, broadening cooperation with international finance institutions. On the eve of parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan, on October 19, 2005, Farhad Aliyev was detained in his office at the Ministry of Economic Development to the Ministry of National Security. After being kept there for a few hours, he was told that he was dismissed from his post and detained as a suspect with charges on coup d’etat attempt.
Farhad Aliyev's Case
On 19 October 2005, Farhad Aliyev was arrested under fabricated charges of coup d’état because of his campaign against monopolies, corruption and activities towards elimination of barriers for the development of private sector. The Ministry of National Security presented no grounded evidence in regard to the coup d’état charges. By instruction of MNS, domestic courts, kept Farhad Aliyev in pre-trial detention for 2 years, and then illegally sentenced him for 10 years. On 9 November 2010, having considered Farhad Aliyev's application the European Court of Human Rights, adopted a judgement on violation of Articles 5 § 1, 5 § 3, 5 § 4, and 6 § 2 of the Convention. Based on this Judgement, the State has paid EUR 16,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage, and EUR 25,000 in respect to the costs and expenses.
Amnesty
On 14 October 2013, Farhad Aliyev was released from prison by a pardon decree signed by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. Thus, he is entitled to fully use, without any obstacles, all the rights, liberties and privileges given to the citizens in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
