The prison term of the former head of Interbank has been reduced by three months

Baku/11.02.20/Turan: The Baku Court of Appeal has completed the consideration of the case of the former head of the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) Jahangir Hajiyev, ex-deputy Dunyamin Khalilov and 19 other defendants.

The court upheld the first-instance verdict, reducing the sentence to Hajiyev and Halilov by three months. This is because the legislation mitigates the punishment under Articles: 179.3 (large-scale appropriation) and 308.2 (abuse of power) of the Criminal Code.

However, the defense considers this not sufficient. “Under both articles, the maximum sentences were reduced by 3 years in aggregate. Therefore, the decline should have been proportional. However, the court of appeal reduced the term by only three months,” said lawyer Fahraddin Mehdiyev.

* Hajiyev was arrested on December 5, 2015, and the Baku Serious Crimes Court sentenced him to 15 years in prison. He and seven other people were found guilty of abuse, fraud with causing serious damage, misappropriation and embezzlement, abuse of power, giving a bribe.

At the end of December 2018, the prosecutor general’s office announced that Hajiyev had been charged with a new case under articles on misappropriation of a large amount of money, legalization of proceeds from crime, tax evasion, etc.

He is charged with concluding sales transactions with no real value bills totaling $ 3.4 billion and 987 million euros. Hajiiev and Khalilov denied the charge.

In September 2019, the court added Hajiyev and Khalilova another one and a half years imprisonment -16C06-