Today.Az » Politics » Six coastal guard officials detained on corruption charges
22 May 2020 [12:45] - Today.Az


By Azernews


By Ayya Lmahamad

Six high-ranking officers of the Coastal Guard under the State Border Service have been detained on charges of bribery and abuse of power, press-service of the State Security Service reported on May 21.

“As a result of the joint operational and investigative measures, it has been established that a group of high-ranking officers of the Coast Guard, abusing their power, received money as a bribe from numerous Azerbaijani citizens for creating conditions for fishing in the Caspian Sea,” the report reads.

The group was led by Lieutenant General Afgan Nagiyev, who served as the deputy head of the State Border Service and the head of the Coast Guard.

“The investigation revealed that a large amount of bribes that were collected each month, were handed over to Nagiyev, who returned a percentage of this money to other team members for distribution,” statement said.

The investigation team has seized various records of the amount of money received by them as well as the money kept in separate currencies and other documents and material evidence relevant to the case.

By the decision of the Baku Court, all the members of the group were arrested under the Criminal Code’s Articles 308.1 (abuse of power) and 311.3.1 (taking bribes by a group of persons in collusion).

Three civilians, who were assisting the group members in taking bribes, have also been arrested.

In addition, two employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations were also arrested for taking bribes from fishermen and were charged under the relevant articles of the Criminal Code.

"At present, the investigation continues to identify the scope of suspects in this crime and bring them to justice," the report says.

Deputy head of the State Border Service of Azerbaijan, Lieutenant General Afgan Nagiyev was detained as a suspect in the case against  some State Border Service officials on May 14.

Recently, the State Security Service launched special operation against a number of officials in the country. Thus, head of the Imishli district Vilyam Hajiyev and head of the Bilasuvar district Mahir Guliyev were arrested for four months on charges of embezzlement, abuse of power, and bribery. As well as, Deputy Minister of Culture Rafiq Bayramov and a number of other ministry officials were detained during the State Security Service's operation on May 8.



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