The deputy head of the Ministry of Construction of Dagestan was sentenced in absentia to a long prison term.

A court in Kaspiysk sentenced Makhach Aliyev, former Deputy Minister of Construction and Housing and Utilities of Dagestan, in absentia, finding him guilty of multimillion-dollar embezzlement.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," Makhach Aliyev was Deputy Minister of Construction and Housing and Utilities as of May 2018. On March 15 of that year, it was reported that Ibrahim Kazibekov, Acting Minister of Construction, Architecture, and Housing and Utilities of Dagestan, was placed on the wanted list. His home and office were searched. Security forces planned to detain Kazibekov, but were unable to find him. By the end of April, the Ministry of Internal Affairs discovered that Kazibekov had fled abroad.

The Caspian City Court tried in absentia the criminal case of the former Deputy Minister of Construction and Housing and Public Utilities of Dagestan, finding him guilty of embezzlement of budget funds on an especially large scale and money laundering. Makhach Aliyev's case had been heard in court since May 2023, according to the case file on the court's website.

Aliyev has been hiding from investigators since 2018 and is on the international wanted list, according to a statement from the United Press Service of the Courts of Dagestan.

The court found that from September 2015 to November 2018, the official organized a criminal group that included the heads of several contractors and the head of the state autonomous institution "Republican Center for Seismic Safety." Together, they stole over 300 million rubles allocated for the construction and equipping of social facilities—schools, kindergartens, and wastewater treatment plants—in seismically active areas of Dagestan.

According to the court verdict, state funds were stolen by artificially inflating the prices of government contracts awarded to organizations affiliated with government officials. The officials then signed fictitious contracts in which the scope and cost of the work were inflated. The stolen funds were laundered through the purchase of real estate and vehicles registered to third parties.

The court sentenced Makhach Aliyev to 11 years in prison, a fine of 700,000 rubles to the state, and a ban on holding executive positions for three years after his release.

Furthermore, the court upheld the Dagestan government's civil suit, awarding the former official compensation for damages to the budget, the republic's prosecutor's office noted on its Telegram channel.