[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 56 (Friday, March 30, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E708-E709]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       CONCERN ABOUT FARHAD ALIYEV AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN AZERBAIJAN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. GARY L. ACKERMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 29, 2007

  Mr. ACKERMAN. Madam Speaker, I would like to call the House's 
attention to an important human rights case in Azerbaijan. Mr. Farhad 
Aliyev, the former minister of economic development and a leading pro-
West reformer, has been arrested and charged with planning a coup, 
though I think his true crime was speaking truth to power in 
Azerbaijan. Too often, the United States has allowed immediate 
interests to blind us to the long-term risks associated with ignoring 
or downplaying significant human rights violations abroad. There is 
enormous potential in U.S.-Azeri relations, and I want to see this 
relationship continue to blossom. But we risk implanting a fatal flaw 
in this development if we are not frank about our concerns about human 
rights and the rule of law.
  I submit a March 17, 2007, article from the Washington Times, ``Ex-
Azeri official held for 17 months'', by Jason Motlagh, detailing Mr. 
Aliyev's case for the Congressional Record with my remarks.

               [From the Washington Times, Mar. 17, 2007]

                  Ex-Azeri Official Held for 17 Months

                           (By Jason Motlagh)

       Baku, Azerbaijan.--The view from Sabina Aliyeva's balcony 
     commands the skyline of this reborn boomtown and the Caspian 
     Sea beyond, but for the past 17 months one stark gray 
     building off to the right has loomed large.
       Inside, her husband, Farhad Aliyev, the former minister of 
     economic development and a leading pro-West reformer, remains 
     locked in solitary confinement, charged with planning a 
     coup--though no evidence of it has been put before a court of 
     law.
       International human rights groups and U.S. lawmakers say 
     Mr. Aliyev is a political prisoner whose rights have been 
     violated as he awaits due process. According to Azeri law, a 
     judge must hear his case by April or release him from 
     pretrial detention.
       The high-profile case comes amid efforts by the Bush 
     administration to secure closer ties with the oil-rich 
     nation, considered to be of increasing importance in a 
     sensitive region. Critics counter that better bilateral 
     relations must be in step with U.S. demands for democratic 
     reform, and not allow a convenient foreign policy to obscure 
     a grim human rights record.
       Azerbaijan is a secular Muslim country on the western shore 
     of the Caspian Sea, wedged among Iran, Armenia, Russia and 
     Georgia. U.S. officials have stressed its value as a reliable 
     energy supplier, citing continued Azeri oil and natural-gas 
     deliveries to Europe as a counterweight to Russia's state-
     owned energy giant Gazprom.
       President Ilham Aliyev--no relation to the accused--has 
     also been a willing partner on security issues. One of the 
     first foreign leaders to contribute troops to missions in 
     Iraq and Afghanistan, he granted U.S. pilots overflight 
     rights in Azeri airspace, and the Pentagon is sponsoring an 
     upgrade of a former

[[Page E709]]

     Soviet airfield for potential use by American forces.
       Some observers also point to the sizable and at times 
     restive Azeri minority in Iran as a potential tool if a 
     conflict with the United States or its allies broke out. 
     Azerbaijan insists it will have no part in any military 
     action against the Islamic republic.
       Azerbaijan has a reputation of being heavy-handed toward 
     its citizens. Before its November 2005 parliamentary 
     elections, condemned by international observers as flawed, 
     riot police reportedly beat up protesters in the streets and 
     arrested hundreds.
       Farhad Aliyev, his younger brother Rafig, former head of 
     the leading Azeri oil refiner, Azpetrol, and a handful of 
     other officials were summarily arrested on charges of 
     plotting a coup.
       The vote itself was marred by irregularities, ballot 
     stuffing and intimidation, according to the Organization for 
     Security and Cooperation in Europe.
       Still, President Aliyev was invited to the White House last 
     April. Washington justified his first meeting with President 
     Bush on the basis that his regime is in a different class 
     than autocracies like those in Belarus and Uzbekistan, thus 
     should be engaged rather than left to gravitate toward Moscow 
     or Tehran.
       Opponents say corruption and ongoing crackdowns on civil 
     freedoms could have a destabilizing effect in Azerbaijan. 
     They say Farhad Aliyev challenged the political establishment 
     to make free-market reforms, to better integrate with the 
     West, and is now being denied U.S. support.
       ``We're defending Farhad Aliyev because we defend the ideas 
     he represents,'' said Murad Saddadinov, an Azeri human rights 
     activist and former political prisoner. ``If we do not 
     support him, we will soon lose everybody like him in 
     Azerbaijan.''
       Mr. Saddadinov said he fears the emergence of a more 
     radical brand of Islam if democratization does not take hold, 
     noting the growing attendance at Wahhabi mosques in the 
     capital. One Western official said he saw ``the potential,'' 
     but doubted such an outcome in the foreseeable future.
       Appointed by President Ilham Aliyev's father, post-Soviet 
     strongman Heydar Aliyev, who died in 2003 at a U.S. hospital, 
     Farhad Aliyev led a broad campaign to open the economy and 
     reduce the power of state-affiliated monopolists that had 
     long controlled the flow of imports and exports in 
     Azerbaijan.
       One of Farhad Aliyev's top priorities was an overhaul of 
     the state customs committee, considered by the Azeri public 
     and business community as a corruption machine. Azerbaijan 
     ranked 130th among 163 countries in Transparency 
     International's latest corruption index.
       ``Corruption is endemic in this country . . . [and the 
     customs] department has been at the top of the list,'' said a 
     European official working in Azerbaijan who deals directly 
     with the government on reform matters.
       Farhad Aliyev ``was generally regarded as a fair and good 
     businessman, even among a disillusioned Azeri public. The 
     West rightfully saw him as someone to work with--someone with 
     a promising political future.''
       An intense rivalry soon developed between Farhad Aliyev and 
     customs chief Kamaleddin Heydarov, whom Mr. Aliyev accused of 
     stifling economic growth by making it hard for new business--
     foreign or domestic--to enter Azerbaijan's markets.
       Both men used the press to try to win over the public and 
     President Aliyev. Azeri news reports agree that state 
     interference was reduced in entrepreneurial activities and 
     certain meddlesome agencies were abolished.
       Ali, 23, a university student who asked that his full name 
     not be made public, said Farhad Aliyev was well liked at a 
     time most Azeris had tuned out politics.
       ``He came across as someone who actually cared about people 
     and change, not his bank account,'' said Ali. ``His 
     popularity was definitely growing . . . and is probably why 
     he was removed.''
       Farhad Aliyev went out on a limb when he said that as far 
     as Azerbaijan's social and economic development are 
     concerned, ``Russia is Azerbaijan's past, the West is its 
     future.''
       On Oct. 19, 2005, weeks after he had told the prosecutor 
     general's office that unspecified criminal groups had 
     threatened to kill him, he was arrested for conspiring to 
     overthrow the government. A corruption charge was later 
     added.
       Officials accused Farhad Aliyev of paying supporters of 
     Rasul Guliyev, the exiled chairman of a major opposition 
     party, to stir unrest upon his return from the United States 
     to run in the elections. The charge was based on the 
     confession of ousted Finance Minister Fikrat Yusifov, a 
     reputed co-conspirator, who was released two months later.
       Mr. Guliyev has categorically denied the claim or that he 
     ever met Farhad Aliyev. Analysts queried in the capital 
     agreed that such an association was highly unlikely, given 
     their opposing party affiliations.
       Charles Both, an American lawyer who represents Farhad 
     Aliyev and his brother, says that since their arrest, the 
     original charges have not been declared in court; no evidence 
     in support of the charges has been offered; no public hearing 
     has been held; and no trial date set.
       Azerbaijan's law stipulates that pretrial detention can 
     last a maximum of 18 months, meaning the government has until 
     next month to hear the case.
       Farhad Aliyev suffers from heart problems, including 
     hypertension and hypertrophy, but has been denied sufficient 
     medical attention, according to the International League for 
     Human Rights.
       To date, his wife and two children have had no contact with 
     him. They say they have been subject to harassment and 
     surveillance by authorities--notably on the day of his arrest 
     when their home was stormed by armed men and valuables were 
     stolen. The family has since moved to a guarded apartment in 
     view of the National Security Ministry, where the brothers 
     are being held.
       Meanwhile, the business interests of the Aliyev brothers 
     have been confiscated and sold off to ``pro-Russian business 
     enterprises favored by the Azeri authorities,'' according to 
     a study by Mr. Both, the American lawyer.
       He said the charges against the pair are ``the direct 
     result of Farhad Aliyev's position in open favor of 
     [Azerbaijan's] integration into the international community, 
     closer ties with the United States, [the] European Union . . 
     . and successful implementation of economic reforms and anti-
     monopoly policy, all of which run counter the interests of 
     many powerful domestic players.''

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