According to a joint study by the BBC's Panorama program with the Guardian and other media partners, the family of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was involved in the sale of real estate in Britain worth more than 400 million pounds.
The BBC's Panorama program says the revelations could be embarrassing for the British government, as the Aliyevs’ sold one of their London mansions to a corporation called Crown Estate, which manages the Queen's real estate. The corporation is managed by the British Ministry of Finance.
According to the documents, Ilham Aliyev's family bought real estate in Britain using offshore companies. According to the documents, the Aliyev family bought 17 real estate in Britain, one of which is an office building in London for the president's son worth 33 million pounds. The building in London's wealthy Mayfair district was bought in 2009 when Heydar Aliyev was 11 years old. It was first bought by the company of a family friend of President Ilham Aliyev, and a month later was named after Heydar Aliyev, according to the BBC's Panorama program.
Another building belonging to the Aliyev family was sold to Crown Estate in 2018 for 66 million pounds.
President Ilham Aliyev said in response to allegations about "Pandora documents" leaked from offshore companies, which named many world leaders and officials, that "there may be 5 per cent true, and the rest is false."
Ilham Aliyev described the Pandora documents as a "new smear campaign" against Azerbaijan.
He said such issues "have accompanied him for years."
"Depending on the political situation, some forces in the West from time to time try to use such slanders and slanders to discredit Azerbaijan and weaken its position. Obviously, this is not a journalistic investigation. It is clear who is behind this. It is clear why Azerbaijan I don't know about others. Maybe they did something that some forces in the West did not like. But as for Azerbaijan, of course, the victory in the Second Karabakh War was a surprise to many. They did not like it," he added.
Ilham Aliyev said he had been in business before his 18-year presidency and was "not a poor man" when he was elected president.
He flagged that after becoming president, he stopped participating directly in business and "passed all his business to his children."
Aliyev said his children had investments both in Azerbaijan and abroad.
"All their business activities are transparent and audited at the international level, and no one can claim that something is wrong here," he highlighted.
The president said he and his family were "disliked" by some in the West and wanted to be blamed.
"It is no secret that my relatives and family members are involved in business, charity and many other activities in Karabakh. For example, the Foundation I created is currently investing in the restoration of all mosques in Karabakh - Agdam, Shusha and Zangilan. This work is funded by the Foundation. We have financed the construction of houses for refugees. We have done this for more than five thousand families. We are doing a lot in Azerbaijan. Of course, some people in the West do not like it. They want to accuse us. They want us to obey them. they want. And I say: No!", Aliyev concluded.
