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Azerbaijani University Criticized For Poor Security One Year After Massacre


Twelve people died in the shooting
Twelve people died in the shooting
BAKU -- Azerbaijan's Prosecutor-General's Office has warned about a lack of security measures at a university where a massacre took place nearly one year ago, RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service reports.

Rustam Usubov, Azerbaijan's deputy chief prosecutor, said in a letter to Education Minister Misir Mardanov on April 2 that Baku's State Oil Academy is still unguarded and too easy for unauthorized people to enter.

An official investigation showed that on April 30, 2009, Farda Gadirov -- an ethnic Azeri resident of Georgia -- entered the Oil Academy with two accomplices and shot dead 12 students and administrators at the school. He died at the scene, reportedly by killing himself. Thirteen other students were injured in the incident.

The official probe also showed that Gadirov and other two suspects in the massacre -- Javidan Amirov and Nadir Aliyev -- had easy access to the building where the killings took place and were able to study a plan of the facility.

The letter noted that an emergency exit was also sealed to prevent students and teachers from leaving the building after the shooting started.

Usubov requested in the letter that the Education Ministry develop a security plan for all universities in the country and ensure that the security problems at the State Oil Academy are resolved.

Education Ministry spokesman Bayram Huseynzade told RFE/RL that the ministry will study the request by the prosecutor's office to ensure it understands all of the prosecutor-general's concerns.
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