BAKU -- A court in Azerbaijan has sentenced six people to prison over an apartment-tower fire that killed 15 people in 2015.
The Baku Court for Grave Crimes on January 27 found the defendants guilty of violating fire-safety regulations, negligence, and abuse of office, and sentenced them the same day.
Investigators blamed the fire at a high-rise in Baku's Binaqadi district on May 19, 2015, on poor-quality, highly flammable material covering the building, saying it could have combusted due to high heat. Fifteen people were killed and 50 injured.
Miryusif Mahmudov, the founder of Global Stone, the company that produced the external cover, was sentenced to eight years in jail. The company's director Ugur Basirov received five years.
Another Global Stone official and two former Binaqadi district officials were sentenced to four years in prison each, and a third district official received a 3 1/2-year sentence.
Two other defendants in the case received suspended sentences and were released from custody.