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21 accused of forming militant group on trial in Azerbaijan

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  • 21 accused of forming militant group on trial in Azerbaijan

    21 accused of forming militant group on trial in Azerbaijan

    Associated Press Worldstream
    September 29, 2004 Wednesday 7:13 PM Eastern Time

    BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Twenty-one people, some of whom prosecutors say
    underwent militant training in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, went on trial
    Wednesday on charges of organizing and participating in an illegal
    armed group.

    The 21 defendants, who were disarmed by authorities in August 2003
    in an operation in the capital Baku and several other cities in
    Azerbaijan, are also accused of weapons possession and creating and
    using counterfeit documents.

    Prosecutors say the man accused of leading the organization, Rovshan
    Badalov, also fought in Russia's Chechnya region alongside rebels
    in 2001-2002.

    The defendants - 20 Azerbaijanis and one Georgian - say they wanted to
    fight against ethnic Armenians who have controlled Nagorno-Karabakh
    and surrounding areas since a cease-fire ended a six-year war over
    the enclave in Azerbaijan in 1994. At the same time, all but one of
    the defendants pleaded innocent Wednesday.

    According to prosecutors, Badalov illegally crossed the border into
    Georgia in March 2001 and led several other defendants in training in
    the Pankisi Gorge that involved learning how to use weapons and maps.

    Members of the group regularly crossed the Georgian-Azerbaijani border
    illegally and, with the help of forged documents, also traveled to
    Moscow and Turkey, according to prosecutors. However, aside from
    Badalov, authorities say a preliminary investigation did not show
    that the defendants fought or intended to fight in Chechnya.

    Russian officials say Chechen rebels have taken refuge in the Pankisi
    Gorge, and after the Sept. 11 attacks the United States initiated a
    program to train Georgian forces amid concern over the presence of
    fighters in the gorge that Washington said were linked to the al-Qaida
    terror network.
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