Ex-minister Nijat Guliyev is sentenced to three years

On Wednesday  the trial in the case of former Minister of Economic Relations, Nijat Guliyev, finished in Absheron district court . The court found him guilty under the Article 228.1 (illegal purchase, possession of weapons, ammunition and explosives,) and sentenced him to three years' imprisonment.

Prosecutor askled for  Guliyev  the same very term. This is the maximum penalty under this item.

Guliyev rejected the accusation, saying that  the trial was ordered  and accusations were falsified.

Guliyev was arrested on August 8 in the village of  Novkhani. According to investigators, guns and hand grenades were found in Guliyev’s dacha, and a gun was found in his car.

After  Guliyev’s arrest a  known screenwriter and presidential candidate from the opposition in elections in 2013, Rustam  Ibrahimbayov Rustam said  Guliyev’s arrest was associated with  him. In an interview with Turan Ibrahimbayov said that  he  got in touch with Guliyev, who repeatedly called him on the phone, and advised how to overcome legal obstacles related  to double citizenship by Ibragimbayov. The playwright is  sure that  Guliyev  has been punished just for supporting him.

Nijat Guliyev  led the  Foreign Economic Relations Ministry of Azerbaijan in 1993-95. From the late 1990s until the mid -2000s he worked as an advisor of ther former president of Adjaria, Aslan Abashidze. After Abashidze's resignation , Guliyev was did business in Azerbaijan and Turkey.

In October 2005, Nijat Guliyev , along with other senior officials, was arrested on charges of plotting a coup, but two weeks later he was  released.—06D--