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  • Azerbaijan: Exiles' Participation In Election Campaign UncertainDesp

    AZERBAIJAN: EXILES' PARTICIPATION IN ELECTION CAMPAIGN UNCERTAIN DESPITE REGISTRATION
    By Jean-Christophe Peuch

    Radio Free Europe, Czech rep.
    Aug 7 2005

    (RFE/RL) The international community has long pressed the government
    of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to improve its democratic
    credentials and ensure that legislative polls due later this year are
    free and fair. Now, in a move seen as a concession to foreign pressure,
    election officials have authorized two prominent exiled opposition
    leaders to seek parliamentary seats. But whether the two men will be
    able to return to Azerbaijan to participate in the election campaign
    remains uncertain.

    Prague, 7 September 2005 (RFE/RL) -- On 5 September, an election
    commission in Baku registered former President Ayaz Mutallibov as a
    candidate in the 6 November polls.

    Mutallibov now co-chairs the Social Democratic Party of Azerbaijan.

    He has been living in exile in Russia since 1992.

    Last month, another election commission in the Azerbaijani capital
    registered former parliament speaker Rasul Quliyev as a candidate.

    Quliyev chairs the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan and has been living
    in self-exile in the United States since 1996.

    Both men are wanted in Azerbaijan on charges they deny.

    The Council of Europe, which Azerbaijan joined in 2001, has been
    pressing the successive government of late President Heidar Aliyev
    and his son Ilham to allow both political exiles to return home and
    participate in the country's political life.

    Their recent registration is seen as a concession to European pressure
    on the part of Azerbaijani authorities.

    Speaking to our correspondent from Russia, Mutallibov welcomed the
    decision that in theory allows him to campaign in Baku's Yasamal
    district.

    "My reaction is very positive. I met the news with great
    satisfaction. In this regard I would like to say that I agree
    with those analysts and observers who say the first stage of the
    electoral process is relatively transparent. [This being said,] the
    vote itself must be perfectly transparent and I do hope it will be,"
    Mutallibov said.

    But whether the first president of post-Soviet Azerbaijan will be
    allowed to return home safely remains under question.

    Just hours after Mutallibov spoke to RFE/RL, the Prosecutor-General's
    Office in Baku ordered his immunity to be lifted. Mutallibov
    subsequently declined to comment on the decision, which he said was
    "predictable."

    The Prosecutor-General's Office last month took a similar step with
    regard to Quliyev, less than 24 hours after an election commission
    in Baku's Xatai district had registered the former parliament speaker
    as a candidate.

    Under Azerbaijani laws, candidates seeking parliamentary seats are
    granted immunity from penal prosecution that can be lifted only if
    they commit a crime during the election campaign.

    Azerbaijan's Prosecutor-General Zakir Qaralov last month said nothing
    prevented Mutallibov and Quliyev from registering as candidates in
    the upcoming polls. But he made it clear both men would be arrested
    upon their arrival in Baku.

    Quliyev tells RFE/RL he will challenge the prosecutor-general's
    decision to lift his immunity before an Azerbaijani tribunal and,
    if necessary, before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

    "I deeply regret that the Prosecutor-General's Office made this hasty
    decision. Were they afraid I would show up in Baku within the next
    four or five hours [that followed my registration], or what? This
    decision violates Azerbaijan's constitution and other laws. By doing
    this they cast an enormous doubt on the democratic character of the
    upcoming polls," Quliyev said.

    Quliyev left Azerbaijan in the midst of growing disagreements with
    Heidar Aliyev. He is wanted in Azerbaijan for allegedly embezzling
    $100 million between 1990 and 1995, first as a state oil executive,
    then as parliament speaker.

    The charges facing Mutallibov are multiple.

    He is reportedly wanted for his alleged responsibility in the bloody
    army crackdown in Baku on 20 January 1990. Then-Prime Minister
    Mutallibov took over as first secretary of Azerbaijan's Communist
    Party only after the Soviet military intervention, which claimed
    nearly 170 lives.

    Other reports say the former Azerbaijani president is wanted for his
    failure to prevent the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenian forces
    and for a 1996 failed assassination attempt against Heidar Aliyev.

    Faced with increasing criticism over Karabakh, Mutallibov was forced
    to resign in March 1992. He fled the country a few weeks later after
    a failed attempt to retake power.

    Mutallibov says he is not familiar with the legal proceedings initiated
    against him.

    "I've never seen them. During all [13] years [I've spent in exile],
    I haven't seen anything. Authorities [in Baku] could have sent
    any document to the country I'm forced to live in, but that never
    happened. They can't even formulate the charges. At some point they
    mentioned the events of 20 January 1990. But everyone knows they
    were directly connected to a decision made by [then-Soviet President
    Mikhail] Gorbachev. Then they invented something else. But they never
    produced anything concrete," Mutallibov said.

    Quliyev says that whatever the risks, he will return to Azerbaijan
    before the election.

    "My plans haven't changed. I am still a registered candidate. Under
    Azerbaijani laws, no prosecutor, no official can lift my immunity.

    Even if today, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow a court rules that
    the prosecutor-general's decision is right, I will not change my
    plans. I will return to Azerbaijan and take part in the elections,"
    Quliyev said.

    Fuad Alasgarov, a high-ranking official in Azerbaijan's presidential
    administration, on 5 September suggested that political exiles campaign
    while staying out of the country.

    But Quliyev says he will not even consider that option.

    "No government official can settle this issue. This issue must be
    settled in line with the law. And the law says [authorities] have
    no right to take such decisions and impose such conditions on me,"
    Quliyev said.

    Mutallibov also says he plans to return to Baku soon despite the risk
    of being detained.

    But, unlike Quliyev, he hopes Ilham Aliyev's calls for national
    reconciliation will eventually materialize, thus allowing him to
    escape criminal prosecution.

    "When people ask me what I expect, I tell them I expect the head of
    state to make a decision. I do hope he will make a decision.

    Generally speaking, things are moving in the right direction,"
    Mutallibov said.

    Aliyev has repeatedly vowed to hold free and fair elections
    in November. But he has not publicly commented on the issue of
    Azerbaijan's political exiles.

    If Quliyev is allowed to take part in the November election, he will
    run on the lists of Azadliq (Freedom), the opposition coalition that
    comprises the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan, the reformist wing of
    the Popular Front of Azerbaijan, and the Musavat party.

    Mutallibov is registered as a candidate for Yeni Siyaset (New
    Politics), Azerbaijan's other main opposition coalition.
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