From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Wed Feb 04 2004 - 08:16:39 EST
Jailed Azeri opposition members appeal to president for fair trial
Text of B. Safarov report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekho on 3 February
headlined "They write to the president from the Bayil confinement cell",
subheaded "Opposition members threaten to start hunger strike from 9
February"
Some opposition members held at Bayil remand centre No 1 sent a letter
to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev yesterday [2 February]. The
editor-in-chief of Yeni Musavat newspaper, Rauf Arifoglu, the chairman
of the People's Party of Azerbaijan, Panah Huseyn, the deputy chairmen
of the Musavat Party, Arif Hacili, Ibrahim Ibrahimli and the chairman of
the Hope Party, Iqbal Agazada, signed the letter.
The opposition members demand that legal proceedings into their case be
open and fair, and be held in the near future. Moreover, they demand
that the trials of the opposition leaders and members be conducted
simultaneously, the evidence provided by the defence and prosecution be
reviewed equally and 28 video cassettes shot during the 15-16 October
riots [after elections in Baku] be demonstrated.
The letter also demands that the law-enforcers who were distinguished
for their special brutality while dispersing the 15-16 October rallies
be brought to book. The opposition members think that testimony by the
interior minister [Ramil Usubov], the commander of the Azerbaijani
internal troops and the head of the department to combat organized crime
should be heard in the trial.
The opposition members will not wait long for the answer.
"If the president does not answer or the answer is negative, then the
opposition members will go on hunger strike from 9 February," the Yeni
Musavat editor-in-chief's lawyer, Samad Panahov, told Ekho.
He said the opposition members had intended to start the hunger strike
today on 3 February.
However, he managed to persuade his client and other prisoners to hold
over the protest action.
Source: Ekho, Baku, in Russian 3 Feb 04 p 4
BBC Mon Alert TCU 030204/jl/vz
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