UPDATE ON TRIAL OF YENI FIKIR YOUTH ACTIVISTS

UNCLAS BAKU 000633 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM KDEM AJ SUBJECT: UPDATE ON TRIAL OF YENI FIKIR YOUTH ACTIVISTS REF: BAKU 572 ¶1. (U) On April 20 the Baku Court of Grave Crimes re-opened the trial of the three Yeni Fikir youth activists Ruslan Bashirli, Ramin Tagiyev and Said Nuriyev to press and observers. The Court's spokesman cited the completion of "national security-related testimony" as the main reason behind Judge Tofiq Pashayev's decision to allow international observers. At the April 20 hearing, Pashayev called the Court to order only to immediately adjourn the proceeding until April 24. Pashayev said that the Court planned to use the intervening period to examine the defendants' claims of police abuse during their pretrial detention. ¶2. (U) The Court reconvened April 24 to take the testimony of Said Nuriyev with a substantially increased police presence. Judge Pashayev convened the hearing for less than five minutes, during which Nuriyev told the Court that he wanted the 20 witnesses who testified in closed session to testify again in open court and undergo cross-examination by the defendants' new lawyers. After a forty-minute break following Nuriyev's statement, the court resumed for ten minutes during which the judge announced that trial was adjorned until May 1. He did not give any reason for the postponement. HYLAND