(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. Reforms carried
out under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev have not
bypassed the prosecutor's office, Azerbaijan's Prosecutor General
Kamran Aliyev told Trend .
According to him, the new structure of the Prosecutor General's
Office was approved by the order of the President of the Republic
of Azerbaijan dated June 10, 2020, and the number of structures
within the structure of the Prosecutor General's Office was
increased from 15 to 18. New departments were created -
non-criminal proceedings, coordination of issues of special
confiscation and official investigations, as well as the post of
another Deputy Prosecutor General was established.
In addition, in order to ensure the organization of management,
execution and discipline, work with personnel, document flow,
procedural management and control activities in the prosecution
bodies, taking into account the requirements of national
legislation and international experience, the "Rules for the
organization of work" of the Prosecutor General's Office were
developed and approved by a decision of the board of the Prosecutor
General's Office on 30 July 2020. The Rules for the first time
separated the powers to supervise organizational work and execution
from the powers to conduct official checks and investigations of
prosecutors, the latter functions being assigned to the newly
created Department of Official Investigations.
The Prosecutor General noted that the "Rules for the
organization of work" returned to the district (city) prosecutor's
offices the authority to procedurally supervise the preliminary
investigation. Thus, district (city) prosecutors themselves carry
out procedural management of preliminary investigation of criminal
cases investigated in district (city) prosecutor's offices and
district (city) internal affairs bodies, and approve indictments
themselves.
"According to the indicators of our activity we can observe the
positive result of the conducted personnel and organizational
reforms," said Kamran Aliyev.
Speaking about the organization of activities in Azerbaijani
territories liberated from Armenian occupation, he noted that
district prosecutor's offices and territorial military prosecutor's
offices are now operating in administrative buildings temporarily
allocated for them.
As a result of the analysis carried out in accordance with the
"I State Program of "Great Return to the territories of the
Republic of Azerbaijan liberated from occupation" approved by the
Order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated November
16, 2022, military prosecutors were appointed to the relevant
districts and presented to the state bodies, as well as
construction of new administrative buildings was determined
necessary in these territories. The work is carried out in
accordance with the general plan of each district after its
approval, and the opening of these buildings will be carried out as
they are ready.
The Prosecutor General noted that the realization of these
measures is possible thanks to the attention and care of the head
of state for the prosecutor's office. He added that new
administrative buildings of Pirallahi, Nasimi, Narimanov, Sheki,
Kurdamir district prosecutor's offices are currently under
construction. These buildings may be put into operation in the near
future.
Kamran Aliyev emphasized that the General Prosecutor's Office of
Azerbaijan constantly develops relations with prosecutor's offices
and other law enforcement bodies of foreign countries, as well as
with reputable international organizations. Participation of
employees of the Prosecutor General's Office in international
conferences and courses serves to study international experience,
as well as to establish relevant working relations. The 33rd
meeting of the Coordinating Council of Prosecutors General of the
CIS and the 4th meeting of Prosecutors General of the member states
of the Economic Cooperation Organization held in Baku on September
15, paved the way for further expansion of these ties. Within the
framework of both important events the issues of interaction,
cooperation in the field of combating crime were discussed and
relevant documents were signed.
At the same time, he said, the delegation of the Prosecutor
General's Office took part in the 28th annual conference and
general meeting of the International Association of Prosecutors
held on September 24-28 in London. And the 29th conference of the
organization will be held in 2024 in Baku.
The Prosecutor General noted that thanks to investigative and
operational activities carried out jointly with the bodies of
internal affairs, state security and penitentiary service from May
1, 2020 to the present, about 35 cases of premeditated murders
committed under unclear circumstances have been solved.
"In the process of collecting evidence for crimes committed long
ago, there are objective difficulties in terms of the time that has
passed since the event. However, despite this, employees of the
prosecutor's office manage to solve these criminal cases, thanks to
a professional approach to work, analyzing evidence, including with
the use of modern technology," he said.
Kamran Aliyev noted that the Investigation Department of the
General Prosecutor's Office is conducting preliminary investigation
of 8 criminal cases related to gross violation by the
military-political regime of Armenia of the requirements of the UN
International Convention "On Combating the Recruitment, Use,
Financing and Training of Mercenaries". In these criminal cases,
about 17 citizens of foreign states (Russia, Georgia, France) were
brought as defendants and declared wanted, with a preventive
measure against them in the form of detention and ensuring their
international search through the National Central Bureau of
Interpol.
He said that in their interviews on social networks, these
persons stated that they were members of the Armenian armed forces
in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. There are photo and
video materials testifying to the participation of these persons in
military actions. Investigative and operational activities to
apprehend and bring these persons to justice are ongoing. In this
regard, numerous requests for legal assistance have been sent to
the relevant countries.
Speaking about the arrest of Armenian citizen Vagif Khachatryan,
identification and arrest of persons who insulted the Azerbaijani
flag, the Prosecutor General noted that all this became possible
due to the constantly growing professionalism of the staff as a
result of the complex reforms carried out in Azerbaijani
Prosecutor's Office, including personnel reforms, strengthening the
material and technical base of the Prosecutor's Office, regular
involvement of the staff in trainings, as well as implementation of
professional management of the apparatus of the Prosecutor's
Office.
The Prosecutor General also commented on the issue related to
the great attention paid recently in the press and social networks
to news about criminal cases.
"If we say that social networks and media have already become
part of our lives, I think we would not be wrong. In addition to
giving owners and users of social media platforms broad rights of
access, dissemination of information, the legislation also
establishes a duty to comply with certain requirements. An example
is the factor of presumption of innocence, i.e. in the absence of
an effective court decision that a person has committed a crime,
sharing information that a person is a criminal, dissemination of
information that is a secret concerning a person's family and
personal life, dissemination of information that constitutes a
secret of investigation, etc. can also be noted as sharing of
information the dissemination of which is prohibited.
Unfortunately, in the course of monitoring on social media
platforms, we find that such law violations are taking place," he
said.
He noted that the procuratorial authorities are taking action
against this. Thus, about 19 persons have been brought to
administrative responsibility for dissemination of information
prohibited by law on social networks and platforms from May 2020 to
the present day, a measure of restraint in the form of
administrative arrest or a fine has been applied to them, a measure
of prosecutor's response has been applied to 82 persons, a warning
has been issued, and a civil suit has been filed against 1 media
institution.
"In this area, we regularly take preventive measures and take
active steps to prevent such violations. We regularly prepare and
disseminate various educational information and video content,
organize trainings, seminars and conferences. Our goal is to
provide people with access to reliable information through social
networks," he said.
The Prosecutor General also spoke about the process of
electronization in the prosecutor's office and the work on the
creation of the "Electronic Prosecutor's Office" system. All
prosecutor's offices have ensured faster consideration of citizens'
appeals with electronic registration of received documents and
paperless exchange of documents between structural institutions
using information and communication technologies since March of
this year.
In the forthcoming period, one of the important tasks in this
sphere is to integrate the "Electronic Prosecutor's Office"
information system into the digital document management subsystem
created by the Decree of President Ilham Aliyev dated August 1,
2023, as well as to create real-time exchange of documents with
other state bodies, minimizing time losses in interdepartmental
correspondence. At the same time, a relevant module on
investigative activity, which is the main activity of the
Prosecutor's Office, has been developed and put into test
operation.
In addition, the work on integration of the information system
"Electronic Prosecutor's Office" into the information system of the
Ministry of Justice "Electronic Court" will be completed in the
near future. Also, by connecting to the existing databases of
"Electronic Prosecutor's Office" information system, access to the
necessary information in real time is provided.
"I believe that full use of the "Electronic Prosecutor's Office"
information system will contribute to the implementation of
functional tasks of the prosecutor's office bodies with application
of scientific and technical achievements, analysis of information
resources with full electronization of the work carried out and,
ultimately, increase the efficiency of our daily work," said Kamran
Aliyev.
The Prosecutor General also provided information on the results
achieved in the fight against corruption. He noted that the
decisive position of the head of state in the field of combating
corruption further increases the responsibility of the prosecutor's
office in this area. The main anti-corruption department of the
Prosecutor General's Office has a 24-hour hotline - 161. On the
basis of the information received, operative-search measures are
carried out and persons who have committed corruption offenses are
detained red-handed.
Over the past year, the Main Department for Combating Corruption
under the General Prosecutor's Office completed and sent to the
appropriate courts for consideration 236 criminal cases against 349
people. About 49 people were detained red-handed, 29 wanted persons
were detained, 168 criminal cases were solved. During this time,
criminal cases were initiated on 82 appeals received at the hotline
under relevant articles of the Criminal Code, as well as
submissions were sent to relevant organizations to eliminate the
identified violations, as a result of which 72 officials were
brought to disciplinary responsibility.
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