17:13, 7 July 2007

Azerbaijan: criminal case initiated against officer who gave up his citizenship

The Military Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan has initiated a criminal case against Colonel of National Army Rasim Muradov on charges of taking a bribe and abuse of service position. "The criminal case opened against me pursues the aim to intimidate me and to force to give up my demands," the colonel said in his comments to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent of the results of his interrogation, and confirmed that the criminal case against him had been initiated on the complaint of those persons whose crimes he had disclosed back two years ago.

The conflict of the Azerbaijani officer with the top managers of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) started two years ago after inspection at the Peace-Making Battalion of Azerbaijan in Iraq, where numerous violations had been revealed. Instead of punishing those guilty, Rasim Muradov was lowered in his rank and sent to one of the units of the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

After that, Muradov decided to get demobilized, however, the MoD refused to dismiss the officer. Yesterday, he wrote an application on giving up the Azerbaijani citizenship.

Author: Zaur Rasulzade, CK correspondent