Azerbaijan court sentences NATO protesters

The News, Pakistan
Aug 31 2004

BAKU: A court in the former Soviet republic of Azerbiajan handed
out prison sentences Monday to protesters who had tried to storm
a conference of NATO officials in the Azeri capital two months
ago. The court found six protesters guilty of public order offences
and resisting arrest, and ordered that they should be sent to prison
for terms ranging from three to five years. The protesters had been
demonstrating about the presence at the NATO meeting of two officers
from Armenia’s armed forces. Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a war in
the early 1990s over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. The
two neighbouring countries remain at a state of war, though there
is no large-scale fighting. Among those sentenced Monday was Akif
Nagi, leader of the hardline Karabakh Liberation Organisation,
which favours new military action against Armenia. He was given five
years in jail. Supporters and relatives of the convicted men staged
a protest in the courtroom when the sentences were handed down but
police dispersed them.