The former head of the State Service for the Protection, Development and Restoration of Cultural Heritage under the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan Zakir Sultanov filed a cassation appeal, where he asks to mitigate his punishment. The complaint is sent to the Supreme Court for consideration, reports haqqin.az.
Note that Zakir Sultanov was detained in May 2020 during an operation carried out by the state security service on charges of assigning budget money allocated for the protection and reconstruction of cultural and historical monuments. He was accused under article 179.4 (embezzlement on especially large -scale) of the Criminal Code and by the decision of the Baku court on serious crimes in January of this year was sentenced to 11 years in prison with serving a sentence in a correctional institution of a strict regime. Later, the Baku Court of Appeal reduced the term of imprisonment to 5 years 6 months.