Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. К.Zarbaliyeva / "I did not misappropriate budget and grant funds during the 12 years allocated to the Health Ministry", Ali Insanov, the former Azerbaijani Health Minister, said during a hearing presided by judge Gaila Mammadova, in the Baku Appeal Court on 4 September.
Insanov noted that he did not appropriate anything from $30mlnof grants and had no property in Azerbaijan and abroad. The former minister said that some $400,000 was paid in tax to thegovernment from the sale of 'Insanavin' a drug produced by him.
Touching upon the illegal privatization of medical facilities, Insanov said that the Task Groups organized to hold reforms in the health sector at the State Commission prepared a list consisting of 200 medical facilities to be privatized. Insanov said that these facilities were privatized by the State Committee on State Property Management at the Ministry of Economic Development of Azerbaijan.
At the decision of the court, Insanov's summer residence, bought 30 years earlier, and his car were seized.
Agaveys Shahverdi, Insanov's attorney, said none of the charges brought against the former Health minister have been proved.
The former minister was arrested in October 2005 for attempting to perform a coup d'etat, appropriation and embezzlement of state property, exceeding his commissions and responsibilities, and other serious crimes and was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment and confiscation of his property. At present, Ali Insanov is being detained at the Penal Service of the Bail Investigation cell. The ex-minister is demanding a transfer to the medical institution of the Penal Service due to a hernia on his spine.