Following the presidential elections on October 15, 2003, several thousands of opposition activists stormed Baku’s central Freedom squire and clashed with police and army. The authorities subsequently arrested several hundreds of protestors, but released most of them following the trials. These seven men, however, have received the most attention, both from the local and international media.

The arrested persons accuse the judge Mansur Ibayev of being biased and dependent on the authorities. They reject to have the trial in a small courtroom, where the majority of their supporters can not fit. Similarly, they protest the fact that the TV cameras are not allowed inside the courtroom and that relatives of the arrested persons are not permitted to meet them in prison. Lately, other points of tensions were the lost TV tapes, which allegedly showed police brutality towards the oppositionists and the fact that the son of the judge works for the prosecutor’s office.

Protesting these issues, the opposition leaders first refused to attend the pre-trial session of the court and then, on May 28, rescinded their lawyers, by sending the notification letters to the judge. “Lawyers are needed for the arrested persons in a law-respecting state. In this case, it is useless,” says Samad Panahov, one of the lawyers.

The judge, nevertheless, refused to approve the letters, based on the fact that the defendants did not point out the reason for rescinding their lawyers. The Judge also sent a letter to the Bayil prison, where the arrested persons are currently held, to clarify if the refusal letters were written under pressure or not.

Meanwhile, the authorities have harshly criticized the action of the opposition leaders. Ramiz Mehtiyev, chief of the President’s Office, has said, “They are trying to artificially prolong the trial till October, when the municipal elections in the country will be held and thus escalate the internal situation in the country once again.”

Local analysts believe that one reason for the boycott of the arrested leaders can be the approaching deadline in fall set by the Council of Europe for Azerbaijan to solve the issue of political prisoners in the country. President Ilham Aliyev, earlier in May, issued a pardoning decree and released more than 600 prisoners, some of which were so-called “political prisoners.” Before that President Aliyev released another Musavat party deputy chairman, Sulhaddin Akpar. It appears that the Azerbaijani leadership is committed to close this issue once and for all and the delay in the current trial might hurt the international image of Azerbaijan. While in Strasbourg last month, Ilham Aliyev shared his vision for the development of Azerbaijan in the future with the deputies of the Council of Europe and promoting democracy and freedom of speech was one of his main commitments. Human rights activists in Azerbaijan, meanwhile, have repeatedly asked the Azerbaijani leadership to issue a pardon for these seven activists.

The criminal code of Azerbaijan permits the arrested persons to attend the trial without a defense. In this case, the lawyer’s functions will be carried out by the defendants themselves. It is not clear yet if the judge will dare to issue a verdict without arrested persons attending the trial, but the court process is certainly at deadlock, perhaps unplanned by the government at the beginning of the trial.