 An Azeri court handed out sentences of between five and 15 years in jail to six men suspected of links to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network and accused of planning terror strikes in Azerbaijan, the sentencing judge in the case told AFP Tuesday. "This is a group of people who were incriminated with an attempt to organize a terrorist attack," Judge Azer Husseinov of the High Crimes Court said, adding that no details of the case would be released "to protect state interests." Azerbaijan's state security ministry (MTN), the successor agency to the KGB in the former Soviet republic, confirmed that it investigated the case but an MTN spokesman said he could give no details of what and when the suspects planned to attack. Azeri media reported that the men were suspected to be Wahhabis, followers of a radical brand of Islam, with links Al-Qaeda. One of the suspects' lawyers told AFP on condition of anonymity that the six men were arrested in August after allegedly photographing oil refineries and embassies in the Azeri capital Baku. "This is a falsified case without any proof," he said.
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Human rights groups have accused the Azeri authorities of fabricating a number of terrorism cases since Azerbaijan joined the US-led coalition to fight terrorism. "They do this so that they can show the West that their special services are fighting international terrorism," said Leila Yunusova, head of the Azeri Peace and Democracy Institute. "We can't be sure that these people are actually guilty, it's very negative that the case was held behind closed doors," Yunusova said. |