AZERBAIJANI PROSECUTOR GENERAL: OPPOSITION YOUTH

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAKU 000341

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/28/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHEM KDEM AJ
SUBJECT: AZERBAIJANI PROSECUTOR GENERAL: OPPOSITION YOUTH
ACTIVIST TRIAL IN MID-MARCH

REF: 05 BAKU 1169

Classified By: DCM Jason P. Hyland for reasons 1.4 b and d.


1. (C) First Deputy Prosecutor General Rustam Usubov told us
February 24 that the GOAJ criminal investigation into accused
youth opposition activist Ruslan Bashirli was almost complete
and the case would go to trial between March 10 and March 15.
Bashirli was the first of three opposition youth leaders from
Yeni Fikir arrested on August 1 for allegedly plotting a
coup. Usubov said that PGO investigators have added another
charge to Bashirli's indictment, "illegal entrepreneurship"
on grounds that Yeni Fikir was not legally registered as a
bona fide entity with the Ministry of Justice, an argument to
which Usubov repeatedly reverted. (Yeni Fikir is an
opposition youth NGO often connected to the Popular Front
Party. It is not a business and we find it difficult to see
how the GOAJ will justify the illegal entrepreneurship
charge.) Usubov also indicated that the investigation into
Bashirli's two deputies, Ramin Tagiyev (also in pretrial
detention) and Said Nuriyev (released for health reasons) was
nearing completion and their cases might be considered
concurrently with Bashirli's this March.


2. (C) Separately, Bashirli's father, Jalil Bashirov, met
with Poloff February 24 to convey his concern for his son's
continued pretrial detention. Bashirov was permitted to visit
Bashirli in jail in early February. He claimed that Bashirli,
although physically well, was very mentally distressed and
showed signs of having been beaten in the past. Bashirli told
his father he had been duped and drugged when he participated
in the infamous videotaped meeting in July in Tblisi at which
he appeared to be complicitous in an alleged coup plot in
Azerbaijan (reftel). Bashirli told his father that security
agents beat him repeatedly on the head at the time of his
arrest in August, the ill effects of which he continues to
experience today in the form of daily headaches. Bashirov
reminded us that his son was "a patriot who served in the
military" in defense of Azerbaijan. He was opposed to the
corruption of the current regime but nonetheless believed in
peaceful, democratic change. The GOAJ, Bashirov argued, had
singled his son out as an example to others.

COMMENT
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3. (C) While the widely publicized August videotape shows
that Bashirli participated in the infamous meeting in
Tbilisi, few observers believe he was capable of carrying out
a coup in Azerbaijan. Yeni Fikir is a largely hapless youth
group connected to Ali Kerimli's Popular Front Party (PFP)
with limited political impact. Consequently, the GOAJ's
aggressive pursuit of the Bashirli case, shrouded in secrecy,
suggests the GOAJ intention was to send a message to
opposition youth organizations in the run up to the November
parliamentary election. The recent addition of the lesser
"illegal entrepreneurship" charge suggests that the GOAJ
likely has uncovered less evidence of a coup than expected
and is now seeking other grounds on which to punish Bashirli
and Yeni Fikir. A conviction on charges of "illegal
entrepreneurship" would carry a much lesser sentence than
treason. Post continues to urge the GOAJ to respect the human
rights of the Yeni Fikir detainees and follow the rule of law.
HARNISH