State Security Service (SSS)  about the arrests in the Foreign Ministry

Baku/06.07.20/Turan: The State Security Service (SSS) announced the arrest of three senior officials of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

According to a press release from the State Security Service’s Department of Public Relations, an investigation was conducted into the facts of the use by officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of official duties “not in the service interests” and “the commission of numerous illegal acts that significantly damage the interests of the state protected by law”.

The information on the appropriation of state funds intended to support the activities of certain structures of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, receiving bribes in connection with various areas of activity, including visa applications of foreign citizens and other illegal actions, was verified. The investigation established reasonable suspicions of numerous illegal actions by the head of the Foreign Ministry’s affairs department, the chair of the tender commission Farhad Mollazadeh, the head of the economic department of the Affairs Department Salim Alizadeh and the head of the Consular and Legal Department of the Consular Department Nurupash Abdullayev.

Reasonable suspicions of receiving bribes by Abdullayev in connection with the provision of visas for foreign citizens to arrive in Azerbaijan were revealed.

Mollazadeh and Alizadeh were brought as defendants on the facts of abuse of power, misappropriation, receiving a bribe, Nurupasha Abdullayev - on the fact of receiving a bribe.

In respect of them, a preventive measure in the form of arrest was chosen.

Operational and investigative measures in the criminal case are ongoing, the statement says. —06B-