Ex-Minister of Economic Development of Azerbaijan sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment

The Azerbaijani Court for Grave Crimes has finalized, under the presidency of Judge Tofik Pashaev, the litigation on the case of ex-Minister of Economic Development of Farkhad Aliev and 18 more persons, accused of crimes under various articles of the Criminal Code.

The Court has sentenced Farkhad Aliev to ten years of imprisonment with confiscation of property, having found him guilty under Articles 179.3.1, 179.3.2 (embezzlement or misapplication), 192.2.1, 192.2.2 (illegal entrepreneurship), 206.4 (contraband), 213.4 (tax evasion), 308.2 (abuse of service position), 311.3.1, 311.3.2, 311.3.3 (bribe-taking) and 313 (forgery in public office).

Rafik Aliev, ex-Minister's brother and former chairman of the board of directors of the "Azpetrol" Company was convicted to nine years in prison. He was found guilty under the following Articles: 179.3.1, 179.3.2, 188 (breach of land ownership rights) and 192.2.1, 192.2.2, 206.3.1, 206.4, 213.4, 259 (illegal extraction of timber). Three persons were sentenced to different terms of imprisonment. The remaining 13 defendants were condemned conditionally.

The indictment has emphasized that F. Aliev was committing his crimes during the period from December 1999 to October 2005. While in his position, he had created a criminal grouping from his relatives and subordinated officials and personally headed the crimes connected with corruption.

The case registered a total of 1287 victims, about 700 witnesses and 164 civil claimants. The materials of the case made 347 volumes containing 93,724 pages.