AZERBAIJAN: UPDATE ON ALLEGED COUP PLOTTERS

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAKU 001527 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/18/2016 TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM KDEM AJ SUBJECT: AZERBAIJAN: UPDATE ON ALLEGED COUP PLOTTERS REF: BAKU 1267 Classified By: Acting DCM Joan Polaschik for reasons 1.4 (b and d). ¶1. (SBU) On October 3, a Baku court approved the GOAJ Prosecutor General's request extending the pretrial detention of former Minister of Economic Development Farhad Aliyev through April 17, 2007. Aliyev was one of several prominent GOAJ officials, including former Health Minister Ali Insanov and presidential aide Akif Muradverdiyev, arrested in October 2005 on charges of plotting a coup and official corruption. The GOAJ Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) also obtained a six month extension of the pretrial detention of Farhad Aliyev's brother, former AzPetrol Chairman Rafiq Aliyev. In the week prior to the extension, the PGO formally added participation in the alleged coup plot to the corruption charges on which Rafiq Aliyev was already detained. ¶2. (C) Separately, on September 6, a court sentenced former Azerbaijan Democratic Party (ADP) Deputy Chairman Natik Efendiyev to five years in prison for his reputed role in the alleged coup plot. Efendiyev was arrested in November 2005 on charges of aiding the alleged coup plot by stockpiling weapons and ammunition at his dacha near the city of Ganja in western Azerbaijan. At the time of Efendiyev's arrest, credible human rights monitors who visited him in detention reported that officers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs' Organized Crime Unit (OCU) repeatedly electrocuted Efendiyev while in police custody. After several days in OCU custody Efendiyev was transferred to a pretrial detention facility. According to Efendiyev's lawyer, Efendiyev's trial, which took place in Dashkesan near Ganja, lasted one day after which Efendiyev was immediately sentenced to prison. Efendiyev's lawyer, Vugar Khasayev, denied the charges against his client, telling reporters that the weapons were planted at Efendiyev's dacha to frame him. DERSE