In Baku, deceived housing shareholders hold three protest actions

Today, more than 50 deceived co-investors of construction companies in Azerbaijan held three protest actions in Baku.

Earlier, the "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the housing shareholders of the Construction Companies "Kyamran", "Sharur", "Shaig" and "Orkhan" cannot move into their apartments, since the houses have not been finished yet. At the same time, several housing shareholders invested money for the same apartments. Thus, in the two-unit building of the residential area "Yeni Yasamal", 96 apartments have been sold to 250 people. The developers refuse to return money to citizens and shifting the blame from one company to another.

Today, the deceived housing shareholders picketed the building of the "ATV" and the "Khazar" TV Channels and also held a protest action in front of the Anti-Corruption Department of the General Prosecutor's Office.

The participants of the protest action blame for the situation Isfendiyar Akhundov, the owner of "Sharur" Company, and demand that the TV Channels should stop advertising residential buildings built by this company and that the General Prosecutor's Office should institute criminal proceedings against Akhundov.

However, Isfendiyar Akhundov, the head of the "Sharur" Company, rejects the housing shareholders' accusations and claims that he has nothing in common with the companies that have deceived them.

The management of the "ATV" TV Channel met with representatives of the protesters and promised to give them air time to express their position.

The management of the "Khazar" TV Channel claimed that the TV Channel did not advertise the buildings of the "Sharur" Company.

The protest action in front of the "Khazar" TV Channel's building was suppressed by police. Policemen pulled out from hands of the housing shareholders the posters with slogans reading: "Return Our Money!", "We Have No Strengths to Wait!", "Stop Deception", "Government, President, Protect Us!", etc. At the same time, the policemen began to take away the portraits of President Ilham Aliev and late ex-President Geidar Aliev, carried by the protesters.

The protest action in front of the Anti-Corruption Department of the General Prosecutor's Office was held without incidents. Kyamran Aliev, the chief of the Department, met with the representative group of housing shareholders.

According to one of the housing shareholders, who participated in this meeting, Ali Aliev, the head of the Anti-Corruption Department, has promised to do everything possible to reveal property of the persons who had been arrested on the case and to ensure the return of citizens' money in the form of apartments or cash.

Furthermore, the investigators examine the version of relationship between the arrested persons and other construction companies. If that relationship is confirmed, the latter construction companies will also have to restore the citizens' property rights.

The officials from the Baku Mayoralty refuse to comment on the situation with deceived housing shareholders and explain that "the criminal case was instituted and the investigation to identify the guilty persons is underway."

The press service of the General Prosecutor's Office once again reported on the arrest of the managers of the "Kyamran B. A." Construction Company: Alekper Babaev, German Guseinov and Suleiman Aliev. They were incriminated of the crimes under Articles 178.3.2 (fraud) and 308.2 (abuse) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan.

According to the investigators' material, the above mentioned persons have committed embezzlement of "a large amount of property by means of deception of people and sale of 90 apartments to 250 persons."