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Azerbaijani Convict Fought Beside al-Qaida

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  • Azerbaijani Convict Fought Beside al-Qaida

    Azerbaijani Convict Fought Beside al-Qaida

    The Associated Press
    03/17/05

    BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) - The government in this tightly controlled
    former Soviet republic said Thursday that the leader of a group of
    six men convicted last month on charges of plotting terror attacks
    once fought alongside al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

    Amiraslan Iskendrov, who was convicted in a closed trial on Feb. 7
    along with five other suspects and sentenced to 14 years in prison,
    spent time in Afghanistan from 1999 to 2003 and fought in the ranks
    of Osama bin Laden's terrorist group there, the Security Ministry
    said in a statement.

    After the trial, authorities did not name the men convicted, saying
    only that they were followers of Wahhabi Islam, bin Laden's spiritual
    underpinning and dominant in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

    According to the Security Ministry, Iskendrov returned from Afghanistan
    and began recruiting mostly young people to join a militant group. It
    said the group was planning for terrorist attacks, including by
    conducting surveillance of crowded areas, the offices and homes of
    foreigners and government and law enforcement facilities.

    In arresting the six alleged group members, authorities confiscated
    large amounts of explosives, detonators and grenades as well as
    literature and audio and videotapes containing terrorist propaganda,
    the statement said.

    Political tensions have grown in Azerbaijan - an oil-rich, mainly
    Muslim country on the Caspian Sea - since an October 2003 election in
    which Ilham Aliev replaced his father, longtime leader Geidar Aliev,
    as president. The opposition said the vote was marred by fraud.

    Geidar Aliev, who died in December, voiced support for democratic
    reforms but also employed authoritarian means to stay in power. His
    son has vowed to follow the same policies.
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