AZERBAIJAN: UPDATE ON DETAINED FORMER MINISTER

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAKU 000574

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/07/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM KDEM AJ
SUBJECT: AZERBAIJAN: UPDATE ON DETAINED FORMER MINISTER
FARHAD ALIYEV

REF: BAKU 328

Classified By: Ambassador Reno L. Harnish III for Reasons 1.4 b and d.


1. (C) Summary. Lawyers for jailed ex-Minister Farhad Aliyev
report that his health continues to deteriorate due to
inadequate GOAJ medical care; they also claim that the GOAJ
has been criminally negligent in its medical treatment of
Aliyev. ICRC, which has regular access to Aliyev and the
rest of the alleged coup-plotters, reports that Aliyev is
receiving regular, substantial medical care, including access
to prescription medication from Germany and regular visits by
local cardiologists. ICRC warns, however, that Aliyev's
pre-existing heart condition makes him vulnerable to a sudden
heart attack. Separately, Aliyev's British lawyer Anthony
Lester plans to appeal directly to President Aliyev to
release Farhad Aliyev on medical grounds. Should that fail,
Lester plans to pursue an emergency injunction against
Azerbaijan in the European Court of Human Rights and press
for a condemnation of Azerbaijan at the June session of PACE.
Local lawyers report that the the GOAJ appears to be
dropping the coup-plotting charges in favor of corruption
charges. We continue to urge the GOAJ to respect the rule of
law in this and all other criminal cases. End Summary.

ALIYEV'S LAWYERS: NEGLIGENT MEDICAL CARE VIOLATES HUMAN
RIGHTS...
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2. (C) Farhad Aliyev's British lawyer, Anthony Lester told
the Ambassador April 6 that Aliyev's health, though not dire,
has deteriorated in the past month. Lester - who has not had
access to Aliyev in detention - reported poorly trained
prison doctors who lack specific cardiology training have
failed to provide Aliyev with adequate care in violation of
Azerbaijan's obligations under European Convention on Human
Rights. Lester argued that Aliyev's condition has gotten
progressively as a result of the poor health care. Lester's
assessment of Aliyev's health was seconded by human rights
monitor Elchin Behbutov who recently visited the MNS
detention facility and reported that Aliyev appeared
physically run-down in contrast to previous visits. In a
separate April 9 meeting with Poloff, Irada Javadova, one of
Aliyev's local lawyers, described Aliyev's fluctuating health
as a crime of medical negligence and a human rights
violation. Javadova further contended that the authorities
were administering unknown drugs to Aliyev, and intentionally
mistreating her client only to administer numerous injections
to stave of death. (Lester did not make this claim.)


ICRC: LAWYERS INTENTIONALLY MISTATING GOAJ MEDICAL TREATMENT
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3. (C) ICRC chief of mission Mary Werntz (protect) and senior
protection officer Jean Paul Corboz (protect) told Poloff
April 12 that they believe Aliyev's lawyers were overstating
claims of GOAJ medical negligence as part of their legal
advocacy strategy. Based their regular access to Aliyev, it
was clear to the ICRC that the authorities were allowing him
medical privileges not granted to ordinary prisoners. ICRC
reported that contrary to the lawyers' claims, Aliyev was
receiving his prescribed heart and blood pressure medication
imported from Germany, which were administered daily. A
cardiologist from the nearby Central Clinical hospital
(regarded as one of the better facilities in Baku) was
performing electrocardiograms on a regular basis to monitor
his heart; he also maintains an extensive medical file on
Aliyev's condition to which the ICRC has had access.
Nonetheless, Werntz stated that the quality of care Aliyev
was receiving was ceraintly lower than what he would have
received privately in Germany, because healthcare in
Azerbaijan is generally poor and unprofessional, not because
the doctors were attempting to harm Aliyev in jail. Werntz
noted that medical experts with whom the ICRC has spoken
agree that Aliyev has a heart condition (predating his
detention) and is a prime candidate for a heart attack given
the high stress of his circumstances.


4. (C) Privately, Werntz added, the case was placing the ICRC
in the awkward position of seeming to defend the rights of
one person who was receiving better medical treatment that
the overwhelming majority of Azerbaijani citizens in
detention. The human rights violation, Werntz opined, was in
the legality of the charges against Aliyev and the other
detainees and the absence of due process, not in the
treatment administered by the GOAJ in detention. Wertnz added
that the GOAJ could quickly face a political catastrophe
should Aliyev die of a heart attack in detention. Werntz

BAKU 00000574 002 OF 002


indicated the ICRC would seek a medical accounting from the
GOAJ of the care granted to all detainees and would continue
to regularly visit the group conveying any objections or
concerns directly to the GOAJ.

LESTER'S STRATEGY
--------------


5. (C) Lester, who is also now representing Aliyev's brother
former AzPetrol chairman Rafiq Aliyev, plans a two-pronged
legal strategy. First, he plans to seek a settlement through
face-to-face talks with President Aliyev during his next
visit to Baku in early June. Lester told us he hopes to
convince Aliyev that Farhad, President Aliyev's childhood
friend and near brother, was fully loyal to the President,
that the evidence of a coup plot was fabricated, and that
Aliyev's failing health justified his early release. Lester
said that it is in Ilham Aliyev's political interest to
resolve this case to avoid further damage to Azerbaijan's
international reputation.


6. (C) The GOAJ, Lester argued does not have a case against
Farhad Aliyev and even less of a case against his brother
Rafiq. It is now grasping at straws to find evidence on which
to prosecute them. Lester added that Aliyev's local lawyers
believed the GOAJ was shifting its prosecution strategy away
from the coup charges toward a focus on corruption, charges
on which almost any GOAJ official could be prosecuted.
Javadova told Poloff that in her meetings with GOAJ's
prosecutors, it was evident that the Government had uncovered
no evidence of a coup plot. Instead, Javadova reported,
prosecutors regularly cited "signed" statements of Aliyev's
former business associates alleging corruption and
misconduct. Javadova reported that the Prosecutor General was
no longer conducting a criminal investigation but rather was
stalling for time by raising low-level claims against her
client that Aliyev's attorneys were forced pursue. (Recent
GOAJ interest in developing a plea bargain system has raised
speculation in Baku's legal community that the GOAJ plans to
use plea bargains to develop a case against Aliyev.)

BRITISH LAWYER: WE'LL MAKE IT UGLY IF NEEDED
--------------


7. (C) Lester told us that should the GOAJ refuse to settle
the case in June, he will immediately take the case public in
an effort to force an agreement. Lester will first petition
the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on an emergency
basis to seek an injunction against the GOAJ for failing to
fulfill Azerbaijan's ECHR obligation to protect human life.
Second, Lester will take Aliyev's case to the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE),through members of
parliaments with whom he has been in contact. At the PACE
June session, Lester plans for the MPs to raise the Aliyev
detention as evidence of Azerbaijan's poor human rights
record. (In an April 10 message to the Ambassador, Lester
told us that he plans to write members of Congress to urge
them to raise the case with President Aliyev during his
upcoming visit to Washington.) Separately, Lester noted that
the Dutch office of attorneys Clifford Chance were going
forward with arbitration proceedings in a London court of
arbitration and at the World Bank concerning the corporate
assets seized at the time of the Aliyev brothers' arrest.

COMMENT
--------------


8. (C) We trust ICRC's evaluation of Aliyev's medical
condition and the care that he is receiving while in GOAJ
detention. We will continue to urge the GOAJ to ensure
appropriate medical treatment for all detainees, including
Aliyev, and will continue to carefully monitor reports on his
health. We also will continue to urge the GOAJ to respect
the rule of law, i.e. move to an early trial conducted on a
fair basis.
HARNISH