Zamira Hajiyeva pictured
(Picture: PA)A banker’s wife from Knightsbridge who spent £16 million in Harrods cannot be treated as her jailed husband’s “chattel” in a battle to seize her jewellery, a judge has told law enforcers.
The National Crime Agency, which is bringing forfeiture proceedings at Westminster Magistrates’ Court to claim ownership of £3.2 million of jewellery bought by Zamira Hajiyeva, wanted to pass documents to her so that she could alert her husband in his Baku prison cell about the court action.
But the plan was rejected after the Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring – who had received testimony from Mrs Hajiyeva claiming that her husband is refusing to speak to her – ruled that it would be an “inappropriate” and “totally untenable” way to proceed.
“Mrs Hajiyeva might say that I’m not a chattel of Mr Hajiyev, it’s not my responsibility,” the judge told the court.
“Many couples don’t even talk when they live under the same roof, let alone when they live 5,000 miles apart and one’s in custody. I don’t want to be flippant but it’s a non-starter from my point of view.”
“He must be served [the court papers] in some form. I find the unpalatable suggestions of wife having to... Even though she’s 5,000 miles away totally untenable .. and certainly not appropriate.”
Mr Goldspring said the NCA should instead try to arrange for a Foreign Office diplomat to go to Mr Hajiyev’s prison in Baku to give him the court papers in case he wants to assert a claim to the jewellery, which includes a £1.1 million Cartier diamond ring.
Other of Mrs Hajiyeva’s jewels that law enforcers are trying to obtain include a £120,000 Boucheron sapphire and ruby necklace and a £20,000 Van Cleef and Arpels pearl necklace believed to have been bought for her by her husband at the upmarket Swiss ski resort of St Moritz.
The new legal twist over the jewellery’s fate came in the latest phase of a long-running battle, which has already led to litigation in the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights, that began when Mrs Hajiyeva was targeted with an “unexplained wealth order” imposed at the High Court.
It was issued under “McMafia” legislation introduced to combat “dirty money” in response to evidence from the NCA alleging that her lavish spending had been funded by the corrupt activities of her husband Jahangir Hajiyev.
He is in prison in Baku serving a lengthy prison sentence for plundering Azerbaijan’s largest bank while he was its chairman.
The NCA’s barrister Andrew Bird QC told the court that it recognised it had a duty to notify Mr Hajiyev about the forfeiture proceedings over the jewellery and wanted to serve papers on Mrs Hajiyeva or the couple’s sons at their home on Walton Street in Knightsbridge.
He said “the objection from Mrs Hajiyeva’s statement is that she says she can’t speak to her husband or he doesn’t want to speak to her” and that her witness statement had declared “that she has had no communication with him since March 2021”
Mr Bird added, however, that it was “inconceivable” that Mrs Hajiyeva had not notified her husband before the breakdown in communication and that “although Mrs H claims that Mr H is currently refusing to speak to her, she has identified that her sons (who are over 18 years old) speak to him regularly.
“There is accordingly no coherent reason why Mrs Hajiyev and/or her sons cannot inform Mr Hajiyev of the fact and nature of these proceedings. On the evidence it is overwhelmingly probable that she has already done so.”
Mr Bird said the alternative of sending the papers to the Baku prison carried the risk that a “rogue guard” would seize them and attempt “to extort money or other favours from Mr Hajiyev in return for letting him see them.”
James Lewis QC, representing Mrs Hajiyeva, said that she believed it was “inevitable” that the forfeiture proceedings would eventually fail because there was “no realistic prospect that this application will be able to be resolved fairly and with Mr Hajiyev’s effective participation.”
But he said if attempts were to continue, then the “only route potentially available to the NCA would, in Mrs Hajiyeva’s submission, be through personal service of the documents on Mr Hajiyev in custody in Azerbaijan.” - assuming there are safeguards in place to protect the confidentiality of the materials and their contents.”
The Chief Magistrate gave the go ahead and also agreed that the NCA could try to send papers about the case to a struck off lawyer in Azerbaijan who has acted for Mr Hajiyev and Mrs Hajiyeva in other litigation. The hearing was adjourned.
Mrs Hajiyeva, who has denied wrongdoing, became the first person to be hit with an unexplained wealth order when the NCA asked her to explain how she obtained the money to buy her £15 million Knightsbridge home and a golf course in Berkshire. Her extravagant spending at Harrods formed part of the evidence during her unsuccessful attempt to have the order thrown out. Separate court proceedings to allow law enforcers to take ownership of her home and the golf course have yet to commence.
