Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 23 2004

Court of Appeals acquits GLO members

On Wednesday the Court of Appeals acquitted six members of the
Garabagh Liberation Organization (GLO), including its chairman Akif
Naghi. The six activists, sentenced to 3-5 years in prison late in
August, were released from arrest in the courtroom.
However, the court found the defendants guilty and issued a two-year
suspended sentence to chairman Naghi and a one-year suspended term to
the other five GLO members. The defendants pled not guilty and said
they intend to struggle for a complete acquittal. The six GLO members
were accused of blocking traffic on the Tbilisi Avenue, breaking into
the hotel and disrupting a NATO conference underway and inflicting
damage to the hotel estimated at 1.7 million manats ($340) while
protesting against the Armenian officers’ planned participation in
NATO exercises in Baku.
The defendants rejected the charges saying that they were simply
trying to protest the Armenian officers’ planned arrival in
Azerbaijan in front of the hotel.
The previous sentence of the GLO members was condemned by Azerbaijani
public, representatives of political parties and parliament members.
President Ilham Aliyev also regarded the sentence as too harsh.*