The ruling that lightly punished people who organized illegal business activities and gambling was overturned.
According to information obtained by Qafqazinfo, the Baku Court of Appeals issued such a decision based on the protest of the prosecutor.
The essence of the indictment is that the defendants Sarkhan Suleymanov, Tahmin Muslimzadeh, Nijat Zulfugarov and Nuslat Khalilov organized a gambling house in the cities of Baku and Khirdalan, where they operated as sports betting.
Citizens do not need to leave their homes to join the game. Joining the game on foreign betting sites was possible by communicating via the mobile application “WhatsApp”. With these actions the convicted gang members organized illegal business activities and gambling. They have caused more than 2 million damages to the state.
The criminal case was already investigated earlier in the Baku Court of Serious Crimes. According to the verdict, the charge against the defendants under the article of illegal entrepreneurial activity was found unfounded. One generation received a suspended sentence, and the others were sentenced to prison terms of 2 years, 6 months to 3 years. In addition, as compensation for the damage caused, the order of seizure of the defendants’ property, valued at more than 1 million manats, was canceled.
The Court of Appeal found the appeal against the verdict justified. The prosecutor stated before the judge that the defendants received a light sentence for the crimes they committed.
According to the decision, the verdict of the previous instance was overturned in favor of the prosecution. Sarkhan Suleymanov, Tahmin Muslimzadeh, Nijat Zulfugarov and Nuslat Khalilov were sentenced to eight years in prison each. In addition, 1,324,000 manat of property was confiscated as compensation for damage caused to the state.
