16:05

Persons who organized the illegal sale of exam questions on the international program giving the right to be admitted to higher education institutions of foreign countries were arrested

In our country, which has declared the field of education as one of its priorities, progressive reforms are being carried out by adopting systematic state programs in this direction.

However, there are cases when government officials are taking advantage of the state established transparent environment to promote access to the educational facilities of advanced countries, undermining, as a result, a healthy competition among young people. Most strict measures are being taken by law enforcement agencies against such cases.

Thus, an operational search was conducted jointly with the relevant structure of the State Security Service and Anti-Corruption General Directorate under Prosecutor’s Office regarding the head of the company who organized the illegal pre-sale of the questions of the international level exam program that gives the right to be admitted to higher education institutions of foreign countries to individuals.  

In the course of operational activities, grounds for suspicion were identified that the director of Uğur İstanbul 2012 LLC Mammadov Jahid Sabit oglu, having entered into a criminal conspiracy with Aliyev Shahin Sevindik oglu and other persons who provided individual assistance in educating citizens abroad, illegally received for a large amount of money from educational centers in Izmir and Istanbul, licensed to conduct such exams, questions constituting a commercial secret and the information base of the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) exam of the Educational Testing Service of an international private organization “College Board”.

As a continuation of the above-mentioned illegal actions, those questions illegally obtained by Jahid Mammadov were distributed in exchange for a large amount of money through the director of “Ugur N” LLC and another educational institution operating in Baku, as well as through Shahin Aliyev and others, with whom he colluded in advance. To individuals in the territory of Azerbaijan and Turkey, thereby causing significant damage to the rights and legal interests of the “College Board” organization and the society in connection with the implementation of admission to educational institutions on a transparent and objective basis according to the standards established at the international level, as well as ensuring confidentiality, competitiveness and effectiveness of education reasonable suspicions have been established. Based on the evidence collected, Jahid Mammadov and Shahin Aliyev were charged with the Articles 202.1 of the Criminal Code (illegal acquisition or dissemination of information containing commercial or bank secrets), 308.2 (when abuse of official powers leads to serious consequences), 312-1.2 (official unlawfully influencing a person's decision) and a pretrial detention measure was chosen for them by the court's decision. At the moment, the necessary investigative and operational measures are being continued in the direction of identifying other guilty persons and holding them accountable by fully, comprehensively and objectively checking the illegal situations mentioned in the criminal case.

The Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan urges students and their parents who are interested in entering educational institutions of foreign countries to be careful about illegal situations of this kind, and citizens facing such situations should call the "961" call center of the Prosecutor General's Office or the “161- Hotline” asks them to inform the contact center.