Baku News

BAKU, October 26 (RIA Novosti) - Two more former officials in Azerbaijan have been accused of involvement in a conspiracy to seize power in the republic, an official statement said Wednesday. The document said former government chief of staff Akif Muradverdiyev and Fikret Sadykhov, the ex-president of state-owned chemicals concern Azerkhimiya, had joined ex-parliamentary speaker Rasul Guliyev, ex-health minister Ali Insanov, ex-economic development minister Farhad Aliyev and other suspects in an attempt to overthrow current authorities in Azerbaijan. According to the statement, Sadykhov, who was fired on October 24, had frequent meetings with ex-finance minister Fikret Yusifov on behalf of Guliyev and discussed the financing of the coup. Since 2001, investigators said he had personally given $30,000 to Yusifov for the preparation of the coup attempt. According to investigators, during a meeting between Muradverdiyev, who was dismissed from his post by a presidential decree on October 20, and Farhad Aliyev on October 13, the latter said the current authorities would not last for long and the actions against them should be intensified.