Azerbaijan hospital bosses jailed over fire that killed seven babies

A court in Azerbaijan has jailed three former senior staff members of a maternity hospital over a fire that killed seven newborn babies.

Mehriban Abasquliyeva, the former director of the Republican Perinatal Centre in Baku, was sentenced to seven years and three months.

Two of her former colleagues, Hamlet Mustafayev and Elnur Ahmadli, received sentences of five years and eight months, and five years and two months respectively.

All three defendants were arrested in the Baku Grave Crimes Court immediately after the verdicts were read on Thursday.

They had remained free on bail during the trial.

The deadly fire broke out on 9 January 2024 at the state-run clinic in the capital, Baku. Seven infants died in their incubators in the newborn intensive care unit, and four other people were treated for injuries.

The incident caused an estimated 361,000 manats (£166,000) in damage to the facility.

Prosecutors said that during her tenure, Abasquliyeva had doubled stasionary patient intake, severely overloading the building's electrical grid and ultimately causing the fire.

The prosecution also accused management of covering up a smaller electrical fire in a ward bathroom in June 2023 instead of addressing safety hazards.

All three defendants denied the charges of negligence and safety violations.

During the trial, Abasquliyeva told the court she had repeatedly warned the Administration of Regional Medical Divisions (Tabib) about the lack of a functioning fire alarm system.

She said her written requests for 2.7 million manats (£1.2m) to replace the building's damaged roof and faulty electrical wiring were ignored.

We could not get the funds from Tabib to solve the problem," Abasquliyeva said.

She added that she had resorted to using more than half of her monthly salary to pay for urgent repairs, including fixing the hospital generator and boiler.

The court rejected the defence arguments. Mustafayev, the former head of anaesthesiology and intensive care, and Ahmadli, the former head of support services, were both found guilty of violating fire safety rules.

Abasquliyeva was convicted of both safety violations and abuse of power leading to severe consequences.