Azerbaijan: Still No Public Results from Coup Investigation

As the deadline draws closer for putting on trial two former ministers suspected of plotting a coup against Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, human rights activists and international observers are calling for state investigators to release evidence to support the allegations.

Minister of Economic Development Farhad Aliyev and Minister of Health Ali Insanov were arrested in October 2005, just weeks before parliamentary elections that were seen as a key test of the government's commitment to democratization. [For details, see the Azerbaijan Election feature]. Under the law, the state's case against the two former ministers should be heard by a court no later than April 2007.

With just over three months to go before that deadline, however, uncertainty surrounds the investigations. No details have been released about the state's case against either of the two men. Officials cite the need to preserve the investigation's confidentiality as the cause. Commenting on Farhad Aliyev, General Prosecutor spokesperson Vugar Aliyev affirmed that the Criminal Procedures Code allows suspects to be detained for up to 18 months while authorities complete an investigation. "With this particular case, the delays are related to the fact that some of the investigative actions must be conducted abroad, and some witnesses are not in the country," the spokesman said.

A former Interior Ministry official on trial for kidnapping and murder earlier has also fingered Farhad Aliyev as responsible for the March 2005 murder of journalist Elmar Huseynov, but the ex-minister has denied the charges. Attention for that accusation has since largely faded. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The General Prosecutor's office has denied a December report by the Azerbaijani agency APA that ex-Health Minister Insanov will be charged only with "economic crimes," but not with plotting an uprising.

Critics of the government's investigatory practices have tended to focus on Farhad Aliyev, rather than the 60-year-old Insanov, a founder of the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party with a robust reputation among many Azerbaijanis for corruption and mismanagement of the healthcare system. The delay in bringing Aliyev to trial indicates that the state cannot prove its case, the critics, many of them drawn from opposition political circles, argue. Rather, they charge, political motives and a squabble over business interests are driving the accusations against Farhad and his brother, Rafig, the former head of state-run oil company AzPetrol.

Jamil Hasanli, an opposition parliamentarian and head of the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Farhad and Rafig Aliyev, argues that investigators' inquiries go beyond the bounds of a coup case. Hasanli claims that the property of close relatives of the Aliyev brothers has been illegally seized. "All businesses that enjoyed Farhad Aliyev's support when he was a minister have been