Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend E.Javadova / The criminal trial involving Azerbaijan's former Minister of Economic Development, Farhad Aliyev, his brother Rafik Aliyev, former President of the Azpetrol Group of Companies, and seventeen other people, continued on 6 June at the Court of Heinous Crimes presided by Judge Tofik Pashayev.
The defendants, Mahammadnabi Rustamov and Mirsalam Ahmadov, testified in the second part of the day.
Ahmadov noted that he had applied to his close relative, working at the Ministry of Economic Development, Mirmajid Ahmadov, for placement in a job (Mirmajid Ahmadov is one of the charged in the case). Ahmadov offered Ahmadov a job at the Republican Auction Centre. According to the defendant, his duty was to receive money and to transfer it via the experts of the Ministry of Economic Development to Farhad Aliyev. Replying to the questions of the prosecutors, Mirsalam Ahmadov noted that he had not been acquainted with the people from whom he daily received money.
The other defendant, Rustamov, testified that his close relative residing in Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan (NAR), Agil Hasanov, had made the suggestion to him of privatizing a building in his name. After a while, Rustamov was summoned to the Central Department on Crime Enforcement at the Interior Ministry. The employees of the Department inquired how Rustamov had privatized so many establishments in his name. "Only then I became aware of the fact. I had a lot of projects and money in my account. I have no idea how the money and the projects were registered in my name. I did not agree to this," the defendant said.
Former president of the Azpetrol group of companies, Rafik Aliyev, will testify at the next hearing.