Ex-minister Nijat Guliyev is released

 A prison sentence  of the former minister of foreign economic relations of Azerbaijan Nijat Guliyev, who was  sentenced to three years in prison on charges of illegal possession of weapons, has completed. The information was confirmed by his lawyer Turan Afgan Mammadov. According to him, Guliyev strongly rejected the charges against him.

It should be noted at the end of May, despite  only  three months left before the expiration of his sentence, the Supreme Court commuted his sentence. Earlier Guliyev  was denied  to be released on parole. Guliyev was not allowed to  meet with his father, and then to take part in his funeral.

Human rights organizations have recognized Guliyev political prisoners.

Guliyev was detained on August 8, 2014 in the village of Novkhani. The investigation stated that  in the his countryside house  were found assault rifles and hand grenades, and  in a private car - a gun. After the arrest of Rustam Guliyev, a famous screenwriter Ibrahimbayov said that Guliyev was persecuted  because before the  presidential elections in 2013 he  advised Ibrahimbayov.  The playwright is  sure that  Guliyev  was punished for support of  Ibrahimbayov.

In 1993-1995 Nijat Guliyev worked as a Head of Foreign Economic Relations of Azerbaijan, and then left the country. Since the late '90s until the mid-2000s he worked as advisor of Aslan Abashidze, the President of Adzharia. Following the resignation of Abashidze, Guliyev was doing business in Azerbaijan and Turkey. In October 2005, Nijat Guliyev together with other high-ranking officials was  arrested on charges of plotting a coup, but two weeks later, he was  released.—06B—