Baku. Shahriyar Alizade – APA. The Baku Court of Grave Crimes on Wednesday continued held a preparatory hearing in the case of Vidadi Zeynalov, former head of the Office of Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Communications and High Technologies, and other people arrested alongside him.
Public prosecutor Farid Naghiyev commented on the petitions filed by the accused persons’ lawyer, noting that there is no need to commute Vidadi Zeynalov’s pretrial detention and lift the arrest on his property.
“These people are accused of embezzling on a large scale. The matter is not about the confiscation of property. This can happen after the court judgment enters into force,” he said.
With regard to the petition which asks the court to call Ali Abbasov and Iltimas Mammadov for testimony, the prosecutor said there is no need to consider it.
“Because some witnesses should be questioned. If needed, those persons can be questioned as witnesses. In this respect, I think this petition should not be considered now”, he added.
The prosecutor also asked the court to reject the petitions asking to commute the pre-trial detention of other accused persons to home arrest.
After the break, the court passed a decision rejecting the petitions filed by the accused persons’ lawyers. The court decided to hold a judicial review of the criminal case on November 25.
A series of investigative operations had discovered that in 2009-2015 the director general of Baku Telephone Network Production Association Beytullah Huseynov, entered into a criminal conspiracy with the director of “Bakı Rabite Temir Tikinti” and “Temir Techizat Servis” companies Bayram Valiyev, the director of "3 nomreli Rabite Temir Tikinti” and “Rabite Mulki Tikinti” companies Emin Mammadov and the chief accountant of the Baku Telephone Network Production Association Anar Mustafayev, gave them a project for the implementation of works on the new telephone lines and installation of new equipment. According to the agreement concluded between them, 35-45% are listed on the accounts of these companies means then had to be returned in cash to Beytullah Huseynov. After that Beytullah Huseynov, abusing official powers and organizing sham tenders issued forged documents, which indicated that the work for the fiber-optic lines for the Internet were carried out by companies controlled by him, though in reality, these works were carried out by local telephone networks. Because of these machinations Beytullah Huseynov misappropriated 21,379,000 of 71,263 million manats, transfers to accounts controlled by him LLC. However, investigators have reason to suspect that the Chief of Staff of the Ministry Vidadi Zeynalov, processing government orders to close the company itself and increasing their value by 4-5 times, misappropriated 73.59 million manats.
The investigation revealed cases of appropriation of budgetary funds and forgery in “Aztelekom” LLC, “AzÄ°nTelekom” LLC, Center for information and calculations, “Optik Rabite Tikinti ve Qurashdırma”.
The director general of Baku Telephone Network Production Association Beytullah Huseynov, the director of “Bakı Rabite Temir Tikinti” and “Temir Techizat Servis” companies Bayram Valiyev, the director of "3 nomreli Rabite Temir Tikinti” and “Rabite Mulki Tikinti” companies Emin Mammadov and the chief accountant of the Baku Telephone Network Production Association Anar Mustafayev are charged under articles 179.3.2 (embezzlement on a large scale), 308.2 (abuse of power) and 313 (forgery) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan.
The head of the ministry’s Office Vidadi Zeynalov, the director general of AzInTelekom LLC Jalil Jafarov, the director general of Azerpocht LLC Gambar Beybalayev face charges under articles 179.3.2 and 308.2. A preventive measure in the form of arrest has been chosen against all of those persons.
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