Azerbaijan opposition leaders to go on trial in May

On April 26, the Court for Grave Crimes received materials of the criminal case against seven opposition leaders. They are charged with organizing and participating in the riots on October 15-16, 2003 and offering resistance to officers of law-enforcement agencies. Judge Mansura Ibayeva will preside over the trial. Those who will stand trial are deputy chairmen of the Musavat party Arif Gadjily and Ibragim Ibragimli, chairman of the People's Party Panakh Guseynov, chairman of the Umid party Igbal Agazade, editor-in-chief of the Yeni Musavat newspaper Rauf Arifoglu, chairman of the Karabakh Veterans Association Etimad Asadov, and secretary general of the Democratic Party Sardar Jalaloglu. The preparatory sitting will take place on May 5.

Rauf Arifoglu has announced the investigative bodies have no proofs of his guilt. Statements, according to the editor-in-chief, "were obtained under torture, and those who made them repudiated them later in a written form." According to him, he and his companions feel backing on the part of international organizations. "Otherwise all followers of Isa Gambar would have been beaten to death in police torture chambers, and 85 people would not have been released from the court room," he said.