BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 26. The former judge of Azerbaijan’s Sumgayit City Court (2008-2019) Ilyas Mahmudov has been arrested on corruption charges, the Prosecutor General's Office told Trend.
The Main Anti-Corruption Department under the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan opened a criminal case against Mahmudov based on the data received by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population and the Ministry of Justice, the facts of unlawful assignment of pensions by illegal decisions adopted on behalf of the Sumgayit City Court, and other violations, under the relevant articles of the Criminal Code.
The investigators revealed grounds for suspicion that in exchange for making an unlawful decision to satisfy the claims of plaintiffs in various civil cases pending in its proceedings, Mahmudov extorted bribes from individuals, due to which, in two cases, he adopted unlawful resolutions.
Moreover, there were suspicions that Mahmudov deliberately included false information in 25 resolutions adopted during his work on other cases which were in his proceedings, and sent illegal judicial acts related to determining the length of service and disability to the relevant authorities.
These actions of the former judge caused serious damage to the legally protected interests of the state, which entailed the payment of illegal assigned pensions in the total amount of 243,441 manat ($143,200).
On the basis of the collected evidences, Mahmudov was charged under Articles 295.1 (delivering a knowingly unjust verdict, decision, ruling or decision by a judge), 308.2 (abuse of official powers that entailed grave consequences), 311.3.2 (repeated receipt of a large-amount bribe) and 313 (official forgery) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan, by a court decision, a preventive measure in the form of arrest was chosen against him.
Comprehensive operational and investigative measures are ongoing to establish other circumstances in the case.