Azerbaijan, Baku, July 2 / Trend, K. Zarbaliyeva /
Today, Azerbaijan is a leading state, not only in terms of dynamic economic development, but also in fight against crime and maintaining peace and prosperity, Interior Minister Ramil Usubov told the "Azerbaijan" newspaper.
He said over 23,000 criminal groups and gangs have been rendered harmless as a result of operational-search activities since 1994 to present. About 34,000 firearms have been collected from the population, and the number of crimes committed using firearms decreased approximately by 11 times during this period.
"More than 78,000 wanted persons have been arrested and about five tons of drugs have been seized from illegal trafficking. The logical result of our preventive measures is the tendency to reduce the number of violent crimes in recent years," Usubov said.
He said 90 percent of criminal acts recorded during the year accounted for less serious crimes and crimes that do not aggravate the crime situation in the country, which mostly happen by an accident and do not pose great public danger, while the rest are serious and especially serious crimes.
"For comparison I would say that last year 2.7 facts of deliberate murder and attempt to this, 1.9 robbery facts, 0.3 blackmail facts, 0.01 banditry facts accounted for every 100,000 people and it is 2-10 times less compared to the most countries of Europe, America and Asia. All this is the result of ongoing comprehensive preventive measures and mutual cooperation of interior authorities and law enforcement agencies. Only last year, 153 employees were injured and five were killed when performing their duties.
These are not just numbers, I would say that it is an indicator of our personnel's readiness to sacrifice for the sake of duty," Usubov said.