AZERI SPIES ‘PLANNED ENERGY TERROR ATTACK’

United Press International
March 20 2006

BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 20 (UPI) — New details are emerging about
three Azeri soldiers who defected to Armenia last year and were later
convicted of spying against their homeland.

Azerbaijan’s National Security Ministry counter-intelligence service
says that 21-year-old Ruslan Khagani Bakirov and two colleagues, who
were held by Armenian authorities from Feb. 15 until May 7, 2005,
reached a secret agreement to cooperate with Armenian intelligence
services after they were freed.

Security officials believe that Bakirov, along with Khayal Idris
Abdullayev and Hikmat Adem Taghiyev, defected while they were on
guard duty.

New details are now being reported about the activities of the three
men, convicted of treason and espionage last October by an Azeri
military court, and now said to have been plotting terrorist attacks
against energy installations.

Bakirov’s release from Armenian custody was secured through the
mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross. During
initial debriefing, Bakirov acknowledged that he cooperated with the
Armenians but his interrogators then determined that this initial
testimony was actually part of a preplanned disinformation campaign
prepared for Bakirov by Armenian intelligence service officers.

Under further questioning Bakirov said that Armenian intelligence
officers offered him, Abdullayev and Taghiyev bribes to collaborate.

Bakirov said that Armenian intelligence officials met with him seven
times during his time in Armenia, and that he was nicknamed “Ramin” and
promised $3,000-4,000 for each errand he carried out for the Armenians.

BakuToday reported on March 18 that Bakirov said that an Armenian
intelligence officer, “Rudik,” instructed Bakirov to bomb Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev’s convoy, the Western-financed $3.6 billion
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil export pipeline, natural gas pipelines,
the Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku and to take photos
of military-strategic establishments of interest to Armenia.

Azerbaijan’s Court Martial on Grave Crimes sentenced Bakirov and
Abdullayev to 12 years in jail and Taghiyev to 11 years in jail last
October after their conviction on a number of charges, including high
treason, espionage, abandoning their post and desertion in the face
of the enemy.