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Incident

Gozal Bayramli has traveled to Georgia 41 times since early 2015: official statement

30 May 2017 14:44 (UTC +04:00)

As a result of the measures jointly taken by Azerbaijan’s border guards and customs officers, 55-year-old Baku resident Gozal Bayramli was detained at the Shikhli border checkpoint in Gazakh district on May 25, 2017 while attempting to cross from Georgia into the country with undeclared 12,000 US dollars in her hand luggage, the State Border Service and the General Prosecutor’s Office said in a joint statement on Tuesday, APA reported.

According to the statement, after an image of the suspicious object appeared on the monitor while the plastic bag belonging to Bayramli was being checked through an X-ray scanner in the Sinig Korpu customs checkpoint, she was asked to present all the undeclared goods being in her possession. Bayramli answered negatively.

“Then Bayramli’s hand luggage was checked, inside of which a cellophane bag with 12,000 US dollars were found and seized,” said the statement.

The statement further said that a criminal case was initiated against Gozal Bayramli under Article 206.1 (smuggling) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan, necessary investigative actions were taken. The Sabayil district court sentenced Bayramli to 3-month pretrial detention on May 26, 2017.

“As ordered by the court, Bayramli’s apartments in Garachukhur (Surakhani district) and Tabriz street (Narimanov district) were searched, as a result of which 1,000 euros of cash, bank statements on withdrawal of 100,000 rubles by Bayramli from a Georgian bank with a receipt dated 17 April 2015 and 2,000 US dollars with another receipt also dated 17 April 2015, bank statements on the exchanging of 270,000 rubles and 4,700 US dollars with 5,076 and 4,982 manats respectively in another person’s name, and others documents,” the statement said.

Materials collected made it clear that Bayramli have traveled to Georgia 41 times since January 2015 but never stated to have any money on her, according to the statement.

The investigation is ongoing.