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Hearing held in case of former Azerbaijani high-ranking IT official

08 November 2016 08:51 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Shahriyar Alizade – APA. Baku Court of Grave Crimes held on Tuesday a hearing in the criminal case of Vidadi Zeynalov, former head of the Office of Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Communications and High Technologies, and other people arrested alongside him.

At the hearing presided over by judge Afgan Hajiyev, Zeynalov’s lawyer Elkhan Suleymanli asked the court for time as he failed to review the case materials.

The judge decided to postpone the hearing until November 16.

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 “BakÄ± 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 QurashdÄ±rma”.

The director general of Baku Telephone Network Production Association Beytullah Huseynov, the director of “BakÄ± 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.