Azerbaijan’s president ’s 11-year-old son behind $44mln Dubai mansion shopping spree?

DUBAI - In an incredible shopping extravaganza, an 11-year-old boy from Azerbaijan bought nine waterfront mansions in Dubai - worth almost 44 million dollars - in just two weeks early last year.

The total price tag is roughly 10,000 years’ worth of salary for the average citizen of Azerbaijan.

The boy’s name, according to Dubai Land Department records, is Heydar Aliyev, which happens to be the same name as that of the son of Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev.

The owner’s date of birth, listed in property records, is also the same as that of the Aliyev’s son.

Aliyev’s spokesmen declined to comment on how the president’s son or his namesake managed to came to own mansions on Palm Jumeirah, a luxury real estate development popular with multimillionaire British soccer stars and rich people.

“I have no comment on anything. I am stopping this talk. Goodbye,” the Washington Post quoted spokesman Azer Gasimov, as saying.

Ilham Aliyev’s annual salary as president is the equivalent of 228,000 dollars, far short of what is needed to buy even the smallest Palm property.

Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic blessed with plentiful oil and gas reserves, has long had a reputation for corruption.

An opposition party leader said that he was surprised at the apparent lack of effort on the president’s part to conceal the Dubai purchases.

Ali Kerimli, chairman of the Azerbaijani Popular Front, said that Azerbaijan’s leaders “face no danger” because the judiciary, anti-corruption bodies and most of the country’s media outlets are firmly under their control. (ANI)