On 18 December, the head of the Agstafa region in Azerbaijan Nizameddin Guliyev his deputy Ramiz Tatarov, and the former head of the city of Yevlakh, Goja Samedov were taken from their houses by employees of the Azerbaijani law enforcement agencies, reported Turan.

A day later, the State Security Service (SSS) of Azerbaijan revealed the details of Guliyev’s detention. According to the SSS, the detentions were carried out after a comprehensive check based on the information received on their illegal actions that prejudice the rights of citizens and the interests of the state, and their omission them of actions that discredit the activities of state bodies.

The statement further read that Guliyev, through Tatarov, from May 2019 onwards, under various pretexts, extorted money from officials of local executive bodies, as well as from entrepreneurs. He was also charged with the appropriation of budget funds allocated for public works for improvement, which attracted low-income citizens.

In April 2019, Nizameddin Guliyev was appointed head of the executive branch of the Agstafa region of Azerbaijan. Before that, he headed the Goranboy region for 10 years. The Ministry of Finance found out that while in his post Guliyev regularly appropriated state funds. In particular, he fictitiously hired 300 people, and took their salaries for himself. He also appropriated money allocated for paving streets in the city of Goranboy and asphalted only the central street.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev already signed the decree, dismissing Guliyev from his function.

As for Samedov, who was the head of the executive branch of the city of Yevlakh until November 2019, he was suspected of misappropriation of money allocated for public works in the sum of 236 thousand manats (138 thousand dollars). In addition, he is suspected of misappropriation in 2017-2019 of 616 thousand manats (362 thousand dollars), which was transferred to individual companies for construction and repair work and returned to the official after "cashing out". In this case, no work was carried out. Samedov is also suspected of extorting, together with the chief architect of the district construction, bribes from 44 individuals and legal entities to provide them with contracts for the performance of work.

The case is unprecedented in Azerbaijan giving the high-level of the official involved. Although detentions and arrests of high-ranking officials have happened before, never before have the heads of the executive branch been openly accused of embezzlement and bribery.