Tag Archives: corruption

Kazakh court jails doctors for selling babies

ALMATY, JULY 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — An Almaty court sentenced a group of former doctors, nurses and mothers to prison for selling newborn children, exposing another case of corruption and human trafficking in Kazakhstan’s healthcare system.

Four mothers who had sold their children, 10 hospital workers and one other person linked to the trafficking of the babies will face between two and nine years in prison.

The sentence ended a trial that lasted for one year and targeted the illegal market of children.

For eight years, hospital workers, including several doctors, had organised the sale of at least 30 children at a price of between $500 and $6,000 each. One nurse sold as many as 10 babies.

The parents who bought the babies were pardoned by the judge, avoiding both a sentence and a criminal record, allowing them to become their children’s official guardians.

Under Kazakh law, people who have a criminal record cannot legally adopt children.

During the trial, parents who bought the babies said they had agreed to the trafficking ring because it was easier than facing the bureaucratic hurdles of adoption.

Aiman Umarova, a lawyer who defended a woman who bought a baby, told the Conway Bulletin’s Kazakhstan correspondent that this was not an isolated case in Kazakhstan.

“It is a problem across the country. In maternity houses you can easily sell children,” she said.

Last month, a court in Shymkent, south Kazakhstan, started a trial against workers in a maternity centre accused of selling as many as 21 newborn babies.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Armenia’s finance minister refuses does not respond

JULY 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia’s finance minister Gagik Khachatryan refused to respond to an investigative article that questioned his role in his sons’ real estate purchases in the US. His sons, Gurgen and Artyom, bought two houses in Los Angeles in 2010 for $11m and are now selling them for $35m. Transparency lobby groups have said there could be ties betweenMr Khachatryan’s ministerial position and his sons’ business deals.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Kyrgyzstan jails official

JUNE 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kylychbek Arpachiev, the former head of the investigations department at the Kyrgyz Prosecutor-General’s office, was jailed for 14 years for corruption and extortion. Arpachiev was arrested in 2015 for trying to extort $100,000. His imprisonment highlights the issue of corrupt officials in Kyrgyzstan.

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(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Italy accuses ex-MP taking $2.6m Azerbaijan bribe

JUNE 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Italian authorities accused Luca Volontè, a former MP in Italy’s parliament and also in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), of taking a €2.3m ($2.6m) bribe in 2012-14 to vote down a resolution to condemn Azerbaijan for mistreating political prisoners.

This is an important case for Azerbaijan as, if proved, the allegations will once again highlight a culture of corruption in Azerbaijan.

Mr Volontè’s lawyers denied the allegations of bribery and money laundering.

The motion to condemn Azerbaijan’s treatment of 85 prisoners, described as political prisoners, was voted down in Jan. 2013 by PACE representatives 128 to 79.

Now Italian prosecutors said Mr Volontè, who organised the voting down of the motion, took €2.3m from Azerbaijani companies linked to the government. The prosecutors’ investigation said Baktelekom, a Baku-based telecoms company, made 18 payments between 2012 and 2014 to companies linked to Mr Volontè through a number of different banks.

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(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Georgia’s minister reiterates Saakashvili threat

JUNE 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s justice minister, Tea Tsulukiani, reiterated that former president Mikheil Saakashvili would be arrested if he travelled to Georgia to campaign in a parliamentary election set for October. The Georgian government has put out arrest warrants for Mr Saakashvili connected to various financial crimes when he was in power between 2004 and 2013. Mr Saakashvili is currently governor of the Odessa region in Ukraine. He has said that he would like to return to Georgia ahead of the election.

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(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Azerbaijani woman has wrong leg amputated

JUNE 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — An Azerbaijani woman who went into hospital to have a gangrenous leg amputated woke up after the operation to find that the surgeon had cut off the wrong one.

Tarlan Aliyeva, 82, discovered that instead of the inflamed left leg, the right one had been cut off. The surgeon who performed the operation couldn’t be found. He had fled the hospital.

“The doctors did this to me,” a tearful Ms Aliyeva, now a double amputee, was shown on a Youtube video as saying.

“The doctors did that to me because of money. See, they cut it from the root. They are not doctors. If they were, I wouldn’t be in this situation now.”

The case has gripped Azerbaijan with many people reacting with anger at the incompetence of, and corruption in the Azerbaijani medical profession.

“By law, most medical services are free of charge but in reality, you can never get a proper service without bribing,” Ilkin, a 38-year old IT specialist from Baku, told the Conway Bulletin

Reacting to the news, the health ministry has established a special commission to investigate the case jointly with law enforcement authorities.

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(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Kyrgyz Parliament approves BTA stake sale

JUNE 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kyrgyz Parliament approved the sale of a 15.4% stake in BTA Bank Kyrgyzstan to Kazakh investors. The stake previously belonged to Daniyar Usenov, former Kyrgyz PM, who fled the country after a revolution in 2010 toppled President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. The new Kyrgyz government took possession of his stake in BTA and sentenced him to 15 years in prison for abuse of power in 2013.

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(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Lithuania refuses Shalabaev extradition for Kazakhstan

JUNE 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a snub to the Kazakh government, a court in Lithuania said that it won’t order the government to detain and extradite the brother-in- law of Mukhtar Ablyazov, the billionaire former opposition leader. Syrym Shalabayev is the brother of Ablyazov’s wife. He was given asylum in Lithuania. Ablyazov is in French custody fighting extradition charges to Kazakhstan for allegedly stealing $5b when he was chairman of BTA Bank.

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(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Court convicts former head of Azerbaijan’s biggest bank of money laundering

JUNE 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – In one of the biggest corruption scandals in Azerbaijan, a court convicted Jahangir Hajiyev, former head of the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), guilty of embezzlement and damages.

The government owns a 55% stake in the bank. A government spokesperson said Hajiyev, arrested in December, conducted illegal activity during his tenure as CEO of IBA, the largest bank in Azerbaijan.

“In 2001-2015 Jahangir Hajiyev entered into a criminal conspiracy with a group of persons and carried out a number of illegal actions of fraudulent nature,” a statement said.

Misappropriation, through fictitious loans, accounted for 41m manat ($31m), according to the ministry, which also calculated 212m manat ($139m) in damages. For a comparison, in the first half of 2015, the bank posted a loss of 216m manat.

Hajiyev left his post at IBA in March 2015, after a sharp devaluation of the manat against the US dollar, which put pressure on the bank’s loan portfolio.

The bank handles over 60% of the country’s loans.

The Prosecutor General said that Hajiyev’s wife, Zamira, is also on the wanted list.

She fled before police could arrest her. Her location is unknown.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

GM- Uzbekistan woes worsen

JUNE 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Rustam Radjabov, the new director of the GM-Uzbekistan joint venture, was detained by police and held in jail since the end of May on embezzlement charges, RFE/RL reported quoting sources in the company. Mr Radjabov replaced Tokhirjon Jalilov who was arrested in April for masterminding a criminal scheme over car exports to Russia. The Uzbek authorities have not confirmed the arrest. The anonymous source also said operations at the GM Uzbekistan plant are “practically suspended.” GM Uzbekistan is one of the country’s most important factories.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)