The FINANCIAL — According to APA-Economics, Rotterdam Court has passed a decision to terminate hearing of witnesses in accordance with the lawsuit filed by FIM Bank of Malta against Azerbaijan.
Bakhtiyar Mammadov, the lawyer for Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies, said FIM Bank made a motion on hearing of witnesses in as early as 2006 in order to drag out the trial.
“On June 6 and December 18, 2006, witnesses of FIM Bank were heard by a court decision. Rotterdam Court passed a decision to terminate hearing of witnesses as Azerbaijan gave enough reason that the aim is to drag up the processes. It is know what decision the court will make on the lawsuit filed by FIM Bank of Malta against Azerbaijan,” he added.
FIM Bank’s claim for sustaining the lawsuit is $6.775 million in connection with the arrest of the shares in New Skies Satallites N.V.
Mammadov added that if the court passed a decision in favor of Azerbaijan, the arrest on Azerbaijan’s 50,000 shares worth $400,000 in New Skies Satallites N.V and a $1.1 million stake in Bermuda-registered Intersat Ltd. will be lifted.
By FIM Bank’s lawsuit, an arrest was put on Azerbaijan’s shares in New Skies Satellites N.V. in June, 2004 and shares in Intelsat Ltd. in January, 2005.
The Court had put arrest on Azerbaijan’s 500,000 stocks and dividends in French-based Eutelsat S.A. in 2004 while on November 10, 2006 Paris Higher Instance Court overruled the decision and fined FIM Bank €5,900 payable to the Government of Azerbaijan.
Pochtbank was 2% owned by Kuwaiti Interests for Financial Investment which is the main shareholder of FIM Bank. Pochtbank applied to FIM Bank for a loan to pay its debts. FIM Bank demanded official documents on the behalf of Azerbaijan. Pochtbank submitted counterfeit documents to get the loan. Although FIM Bank found that the documents were fake, it lent the loan on the mutual consent.
The forged documents submitted to FIM Bank indicated that the loan would be used for procurement of equipment of alleged AzTell and BakTell owned by the Communications Ministry of Azerbaijan and the ministry allegedly provided guarantee for repayment (these companies didn’t exist in fact). Pochtbank failed to repay the loan which was borrowed through counterfeit documents.
Hoping to take the lost money from the government of Azerbaijan, FIM Bank made lawsuits against the country in various countries.
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