Azernews.Az

BAKU – Head of a local body in a wealthy district of Baku has been arrested on charges of bribery, the Prosecutor-General's Office said.

Two citizens are said to have called the Prosecutor-General's Office hotline on Monday saying officials of a Sabayil district municipality sought to take a bribe from them. They said that a court ruled as early as in 2007 to grant them a land plot to build a private house in the district, however, the municipality’s head, Mubariz Ibrahimov, asked a 10,000 manat (around $12,500) bribe for the purpose. The demand was communicated by two of his inferiors. However, the citizens agreed with the municipality’s officials that they would pay 8,000 manats ($10,000), they told prosecutors.

The Prosecutor-General's Office anti-corruption department’s employees, in an effort to investigate the allegations, gave the citizens marked money to be handed to the municipality’s officials. After the money was given to the municipality’s lawyer, law enforcers entered his office, discovering and impounding 8,000 manats from him.

The suspects could face eight to twelve years in jail, with the confiscation of property, if convicted.