In Azerbaijan, two officials punished with public works for arbitrariness

The Sheki District Court of Azerbaijan, presided by Judge Kyamran Suleimanov, finished the trial of two former officials of the district administration, who were arrested after the suicide committed by local businessman Khikmet Salimov on February 3.

Eldanz Gakhramanov, former deputy head of the district executive authority, and Yusif Abdurakhmanov, head of the division for construction and architecture of the district administration and the chief architect of the city of Sheki, were found guilty under the article of "abuse of power" and sentenced to 1.5 and 2 years of corrective public works, respectively, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

The reason for bringing the officials to justice was in their instruction to demolish the shop of a local businessman Khikmet Salimov, after which on April 3 he committed suicide by jumping from the bridge into the Kischai River.

As explained by the Sheki District Court, during that period 20 percent of the convicts' salaries will be withdrawn in favour of the state. Both defendants were released in the courtroom. Let us note here that the maximum sentence under this article of the Criminal Code assumes up to three years of imprisonment.

The Court refused to comment on the sentence.

The wife of the deceased businessman - Nailya Salimova - called the court's decision unfair. According to her story, they passed a lenient sentence. "During the trial we received anonymous telephone calls recommending us 'not to make noise'; otherwise 'it would be still worse'."They wanted to urge us not to complain," said Salimov.

According to the woman, because of threats, her daughter Elfana Salimova, who was registered as the owner of the demolished shop, was forced to sign an "amicable agreement". "However, this doesn't mean that we've agreed with the results of the investigation into the suicide," said the wife of the deceased businessman. The 'amicable agreement', according to her story, concerned the absence of material claims against the defendants on the shop. "It still didn't matter because the total damage was estimated as only 40 manats (48 US dollars), although its actual size was hundreds of times higher," said Ms Salimova.

She added that her family was left without subsistence means, and does not believe in justice. According to Nailya Salimova, she was even more outraged by the spreading rumours that she had concluded an agreement with the defendants and refused to appeal in exchange for 40,000 manats (about 48,000 US dollars).

One of the local civil activists, who preferred to remain anonymous because of possible problems with district authorities, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that it was clear from the outset: the officials will be slightly punished. "They could escape any liability whatsoever, but they simply got under 'a hot hand' - the campaign against corruption launched in late January-early February," he said.

"On the other hand, the deputy head of administration and the architect fulfilled the order of the head of the district; therefore, they were not direct instigators of the tragedy," said the source.

It was impossible to contact the convicts; however, one of them, E. Gakhramanov stated that he agreed with the decision of the court. "What can I say: this is the decision of the state and whatever it was, I accept it," the Radio Liberty quotes him as saying.

The executive authority of the Shaki District refused to make comments, saying that "the case is investigated by law enforcement bodies."

In his turn, Eldar Sultanov, head of the press service of the General Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan, explained that the completed trial had to do with the abuse of power by the employees of the Sheki executive authority. "As to the inquiry into the fact of suicide, which is investigated under Article 125 (incitement to suicide), continues by the Sheki District Prosecutor's Office," he said.

However, Namizad Safarov, an independent lawyer, believes that isolation of the suicide into a separate criminal case was wrong. In his opinion, it was done with the aim to avert the former officials from a more severe punishment. According to Mr Safarov, "according to common practice in Azerbaijan, the majority of investigations under the article of incitement to suicide are either stopped upon time expiration and never reach the courts."

Zokhrab Ismajyl, head of the Centre for Support of Free Economy, believes that despite the recent increased attention of the government to the fight against corruption, the business subjects are still running into problems. "One of the most widespread problems is demolition of small businesses after each change of district leadership. Every new leader starts with demolition of shops, cafes and other objects under the pretext that the land was allotted incorrectly. After some time, these land plots are given to other people, naturally, 'not for free'," noted the expert.

Businessmen also complain of harassment by tax officials, bureaucracy at the customs, and difficulties in obtaining credits.

According to relatives of the deceased businessman, Salimov committed suicide because of demolition of his commercial facility; since he left without livelihood.

Nailya Salimova said that her husband's problems began in 2003, when the former head of the district Rufat Ibragimov robbed Salimov's shop of building materials, located in the local marketplace, without paying him any compensation. The businessman was not even allowed to take out his goods out of the shop.

Then, Salimov received a land plot and built a shop of building materials in another part of the town. "When they started asserting that the shop was illegally expanded by erecting a shed in front of the shop, my husband agreed to remove the shed. He asked at least not to touch the shop, which stood in the legal place; however, they wouldn't listen to him and demolished the entire shop," said the woman.

Ibragimov was unavailable for comments.