AZERBAIJANI, GEORGIAN PLOTTERS SENTENCED.

The military bench of Azerbaijan’s Supreme Court on March 4 sentenced a former OPON special police officer to death and three other officers to prison terms from 13 to 14 years for the 1994 assassination of the vice chairman of Azerbaijan’s parliament and of President Heydar Aliyev’s security chief. The murders were connected to the October 1994 rebellion of then-prime minister Suret Huseinov against Aliyev. Huseinov and other rebel leaders fled to Russia, but Russian authorities have extradited some of them, including the officers just sentenced. (11)

Georgia’s Supreme Court yesterday sentenced Zaur Kobalia, a former associate of the late Georgian president Zviad Gamsakhurdia, to 13 years in prison on charges of treason, banditry, organizing illegal armed units, and fomenting civil war. The charges stem from the 1993 attempt by the deposed Gamsakhurdia to regain power by launching an armed uprising in western Georgia. Zaur Kobalia’s brother Loti Kobalia, who was one of Gamsakhurdia’s closest associates, is currently on trial with four accomplices in connection with that rebellion. (12) A separate trial has as its main defendant Tengiz Kitovani, former defense minister accused of creating an illegal military formation.

Key Rail Link to Open.