JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS ALSO AGAINST AZERBAIJANI PLOTTERS.

The Supreme Court of Azerbaijan has sentenced three former senior OPON officers — headed by Elchin Amiraslanov — to death, and 27 OPON and civilian codefendants to terms of forced labor ranging from nine to 15 years. The sentences, handed down on November 28, stem from the OPON’s (special-purpose police detachments) March 1995 rebellion against President Haidar Aliev. Most of the defendants participated in that rebellion and in some subsequent acts of violence in the Kazakh and Tauz districts, where they supported the OPON rebellion in Baku led by the First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Rovshan Javadov. Army units suppressed that rebellion, and Aliev dissolved the OPON. Some of the rebels have since been sentenced in batches, some are still due to go on trial, while others are on the run in the country. (Turan, November 28)

Baku law-enforcement authorities confirmed on December 1 that Russia has extradited Azer Aslanov to Azerbaijan. Aslanov has been wanted since 1994 for having planted the bomb that killed 13 and injured 58 in the Baku subway in July of that year. Aslanov, now 30, had been captured by Armenian forces in the Karabakh war, and was allegedly trained and tasked to return to Baku and commit that terrorist act, according to the official Azerbaijani version. He then fled to Russia. (Turan, Russian agencies, November 30-December 1) The Russian authorities have adopted a policy of selectively extraditing conspirators sought by Azerbaijan, but they continue protecting several former Communist leaders who fled to Russia and are wanted in Azerbaijan on criminal charges.

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