Criminal cases initiated against officials

On July 4, 2022, the media reported that, based on the results of inspections and official investigations conducted by the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan in the regional departments of culture and subordinate institutions, 11 appeals were sent to law enforcement agencies over the past year, oxu.az reports citing press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The report says that in 2021 and in the first half of 2022, the Main Department for Combat to Corruption under the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Azerbaijan, on the basis of appeals from the Ministry of Culture, conducted an investigation into 11 cases against officials of cultural institutions in Baku, Barda, Shamakhi, Aghjabadi and Kurdamir districts initiated eight criminal cases on facts of fraud, misappropriation and embezzlement, abuse of power and forgery.

Of these, four criminal cases were sent to the courts for consideration, one criminal case was discontinued due to the provision of compensation for damage to the state, and the remaining three are currently under investigation.

During the investigation, partial compensation (917,000 manats) of damages in the total amount of 1,870,000 manats caused to the state budget as a result of illegal actions was provided, the necessary investigative actions are continuing to compensate for the rest of the damage.

In the materials submitted by the Ministry of Culture on four institutions, the investigation did not provide sufficient grounds for initiating a criminal case. In this regard, five submissions were sent to eliminate violations of the law, the causes and conditions that caused them, and the prosecutor issued a warning to two persons in order to prevent violations of the law.

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