Azerbaijan jails 22 for helping Iran plot terror attacks
Defendants sentenced to 10-15 years for assisting Revolutionary Guards plan strikes on US and Israeli targets
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BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — A court in Azerbaijan has sentenced 22 people to lengthy jail terms for assisting the Revolutionary Guards in neighboring Iran in alleged terrorist plots against US and Israeli targets in the oil-rich Caspian nation.
The Baku serious crimes court said Tuesday that the defendants were handed jail terms of between 10 and 15 years on charges that also included treason and the unlawful possession of weapons.
The trial was held behind closed doors.
Azerbaijani authorities said the Revolutionary Guards recruited an Azeri citizen Niyazi Kerimov while he was in Iran in 1999 and gave him the job of assembling a group of other Azerbaijanis to act as spies.
Targets for attacks were to include the US and Israeli embassies as well as Western-linked groups and companies.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
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