"There were serious grounds to suspect that the officers abused their office to illegally intervene in the activities of businesses in violation of the law,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said on its website Tuesday, without naming anyone.

     

The arrests took place the same day that Azerbaijan’s parliament approved a bill sent by President Ilham Aliyev to suspend all inspections of businesses for two years. Aliyev removed National Security Minister Eldar Mahmudov from office on Saturday after accusing government and law-enforcement agencies of hampering Azerbaijan’s economic growth by carrying out illegal inspections and extortion of private businesses.

Mahmudov wasn’t among those ordered arrested by Baku’s Sabail district court, APA news service reported late Monday. The suspects include generals responsible for the ministry’s monitoring and anti-terrorism departments, the haqqin.az news website reported.

The largest oil producer in the former Soviet Union after Russia and Kazakhstan will hold parliamentary elections on Nov. 1 in which the ruling New Azerbaijan Party is expected to retain its majority. The Caspian Sea nation saw its oil income fall by half in the past year as crude prices fell. Oil contributes 95 percent of exports and 70 percent of government revenue, according to the World Bank.

 

(Bloomberg)