VZCZCXRO7524
PP RUEHDBU RUEHLN RUEHSK RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHKB #0476/01 1631112
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 121112Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY BAKU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1353
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC PRIORITY
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BAKU 000476 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR INL - JCAMPBELL 
DEPT FOR EUR/ACE AND EUR/CARC 
DOJ/OPDAT FOR ALEXANDRE/EHRENSTAMM/NEWCOMBE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EFIN SNAR KJUS OTRA KCRM KCOR AJ
SUBJECT: AZERBAIJAN: PROSECUTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE SHOWS NEW 
SIGNS OF COOPERATION 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY:  A long period of inaccessibility to the 
Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan by the Embassy appears to 
have ended after the October 2008 elections. After a 
fruitful and warm meeting with the Ambassador and the DOJ 
Resident Legal Advisor, the Prosecutor General asked the 
RLA to travel throughout the country educating his 
prosecutors on the finer points of modern criminal law and 
procedure. He assigned three senior prosecutors to help 
towards this end. As a result, the RLA has held, and 
continues to hold, a series of seminars that have resulted 
in not only raising the Azeris' professional capabilities, 
but also has them requesting a change in their criminal 
procedure code, namely the institution of plea bargaining. 
End Summary. 
 
Background: Prosecutors' Capabilities and Attitudes 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶2. One of the constitutional principles of the Azeri court 
system is the right to a contest between the parties to 
convince the judge of the righteousness of their 
respective cases. The wording of the Constitution suggests 
that there is to be an adversarial process in which each 
party presents its own case while distinguishing it from 
the deficiencies of the opposing party's case. The judge 
in an adversarial system plays a relatively passive role, 
mainly responding to the parties' objections and ruling on 
the parties' motions; this differs from an inquisitorial 
system in which judges play a more active role during the 
trial. Despite the language in the Constitution and the 
Civil and Criminal Codes, which suggest an adversarial 
system, conflicting language in the procedural codes 
suggest the contrary. As a result, the inquisitorial 
manner of proceeding often takes precedence in courtroom 
practice. 
 
¶3. Partly as a consequence, Azeri prosecutors do not have 
a grasp of how to put together and prosecute complex 
criminal cases in the fields of corruption and financial 
crime. Prosecutors and investigators are stymied by 
today's interconnected world where criminals are 
constantly on the move between countries. The prosecutors 
are unaware of the various methods of law enforcement 
cooperation available between Azerbaijan and the 
U.S./Europe. Even once they get to trial, few advocates 
are skilled at organizing witnesses in a logical flow; 
giving a focused opening statement; addressing the defense 
theory in direct examination; effectively handling 
diagrams and other documentation; using leading questions 
in cross examination; and analyzing points for closing 
argument. Further, none understand their heavy ethical 
obligations in an adversarial trial. Although an Ethics 
Code for Azeri prosecutors was implemented last year, it 
remains a vague abstraction for the majority of trial 
prosecutors. 
 
¶4.  Allegedly because of poor health and scheduling 
conflicts, the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan had been 
uncooperative and uncommunicative to repeated requests by 
the Embassy to help resolve these problems. Despite four 
diplomatic notes sent over the summer of 2008 requesting a 
meeting with the Ambassador and the newly arrived U.S. 
Department of Justice (DOJ) Resident Legal Advisor (RLA), 
the Prosecutor General ignored these diplomatic notes. 
 
Meeting with the Prosecutor General 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  After the October Presidential elections, the 
Prosecutor General was reaffirmed in his post by the 
President. Suddenly, his negative attitude mainly 
disappeared.  In November 2008, the Prosecutor General 
invited the Ambassador and the RLA to his office, jovially 
welcomed them with open arms, and spent over two hours 
discussing the RLA's past experience in handling complex 
federal prosecutions and what the RLA could do now to help 
the state of the Azeri criminal justice system. He gave 
the RLA the green light to travel the width and breadth of 
the country educating his prosecutors on the finer points 
of modern criminal law and procedure. He assigned three 
senior prosecutors to be the points of contact (POC) for 
the RLA: the head of international affairs and training; 
the head of the anti corruption task force; and the chief 
prosecutor for the city of Baku. The Prosecutor General 
stated that he had given those three a mandate to smooth 
the RLA's way, so there would be no obstacles in the RLAQs 
efforts to advise and train the entire prosecutor's staff. 
 
BAKU 00000476  002 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶6.  The Prosecutor General has been true to his word. The 
three POC's regularly meet the RLA for lunch or dinner to 
discuss their public cases and their resource gaps. 
Pursuant to their requests, the RLA has held, inter alia, 
the following programs, each with current and ongoing 
follow-up. 
 
INL OPDAT/RLA Programs for the Prosecutors' Office 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶7. A seminar on understanding money laundering.  This 
seminar, held in conjunction with the Council of Europe, 
was also attended by judges and by Members of Parliament. 
It paved the way to the recent passage of an anti-money 
laundering law. To educate prosecutors and investigators 
on this newly enacted law and on how to interact with a 
Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), a follow-up, more 
detailed series of trainings will be held in July 2009. 
These will be conducted by a senior U.S. Treasury IRS CID 
Agent who is the author of a world recognized text book on 
money laundering investigation. 
 
¶8. A seminar on corruption investigation and prosecution. 
Taught by the RLA, he used a case model to explain in 
detail the six-step method used to investigate and 
prosecute complicated cases: use of informants; technical 
surveillance; undercover operations; financial tracing and 
net worth analysis; plea bargaining, including immunity 
and witness protection; and the charging of racketeering 
and money-laundering laws. The RLA explained how the 
fruits of these six steps can be put together into a trial 
schematic simple enough for a jury (or Azeri judge) to 
understand. The Azeri prosecutors appreciated the need, no 
matter what the resources, to think creatively and 
proactively and seemed to appreciate how various 
techniques illustrated by the RLA, especially a net worth 
analysis, could further an investigation. At request of 
the head of the anti-corruption task force, a follow-up, 
more detailed financial investigation workshop for 
prosecutors and investigators will be held in July 2009, 
to be conducted by a senior FBI Financial 
Analyst/Certified Accountant. 
 
¶9.  A seminar on international mutual legal assistance 
(evidence requests and exchange), extradition, and foreign 
asset seizure. This seminar was taught by an attorney from 
DOJQs Office of International Affairs (OIA) and by a 
British prosecutor seconded to the Basil Institute on 
Governance. In addition to Azeri prosecutors, in 
attendance were staff attorneys from the Ministry of 
Justice's Central Authority, which handles all foreign 
evidence requests. The two presenters provided techniques, 
strategies, concepts, and ideas for Azeri law enforcement 
to use in trans-border matters. The GOAJ now finally 
understands that it does not need an MLAT in order to 
cooperate or receive cooperation in international matters. 
The Central Authority for the Ministry of Justice now 
knows to coordinate with DOJ OPDAT/OIA and EUROJUST. The 
RLA will continue to stay in regular contact with the 
Ministry of Justice Central Authority to ensure viability. 
 
¶10. Trial advocacy training.  The RLA took three of the 
most promising and better English-speaking young Azeri 
prosecutors to the DOJ National Advocacy Center (NAC) 
Columbia, South Carolina. They went through the two-week 
trial advocacy course designed for Assistant U.S. 
Attorneys. This course at the NAC is designed to teach a 
prosecutor how to prepare witnesses for a trial, implement 
trial strategy, effectively question witnesses, argue 
cogently, think on one's feet, and how to generally 
conduct one's self in a courtroom. The three Azeris 
performed superbly, were well prepared for class every 
day, and passed the course with enthusiasm. They are now 
qualified not only to successfully handle contested 
trials, but also to assist the RLA in running a series of 
trial advocacy programs in Azerbaijan to teach courtroom 
advocacy to other Azeri prosecutors. 
 
¶11.  A seminar on trial ethics. Specifically at the 
Prosecutor General's request, the RLA and an attorney from 
DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) traveled 
to different prosecutorsQ offices around the country to 
familiarize regional Azeri prosecutors with the Azeri 
ethics code, illustrate the similarities with the U.S. 
code, provide examples of professional misconduct in the 
trial setting, and to advise on procedures for 
 
BAKU 00000476  003 OF 003 
 
 
investigating and punishing such allegations of 
prosecutorial misconduct. They pointed out provisions in 
the Azeri Code that mandated a prosecutor's ethical duty 
to act towards the court and defendant fairly and 
responsibly.  They explained how that this is the same 
mandate imposed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Brady v. 
Maryland, which requires prosecutors to turn over any 
material that might be helpful to the defense. In each of 
the venues, the participants expressed enthusiasm, stating 
that this was an eye-opening experience for them. It has 
made them think about what it means to be a prosecutor and 
about the special responsibility that they hold. 
 
¶12. Interestingly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a 
representative from its Office of Intrnational Law and 
Treaties to attend several of he regional sessions. He 
specifically expressed is delight and appreciation for 
the seminars. Hesaid he wished that the senior level 
leadership n all branches of the Azeri government could 
have heard the Baku ethics presentation. He realized tht 
would never happen (they are always too busy), but he 
believed that the presentations resonated well with the 
Prosecutor's Office and would have long-term and 
sustaining impact. 
 
Plea Bargaining 
--------------- 
 
¶13.  Each of the above listed seminars touched on the 
issue of plea bargaining. Azeri prosecutors who have 
attended the RLAQs seminars, as well as judges who have 
attended separate judicial procedure seminars held by the 
RLA, are now clamoring for the institution of plea 
bargaining in Azerbaijan. Accordingly, the RLA 
commissioned a British law professor who is an expert in 
international criminal procedure to write a study paper on 
the feasibility of plea bargaining in Azerbaijan. He did 
indeed find feasibility, and further recommended that the 
plea bargaining law be brought in conjunction with a 
speedy trial law. His paper was recently presented to the 
Azeri Anti Corruption Commission (ACC). 
 
¶14. The ACC representative just informed the RLA that DOJ 
should hold a public education seminar in September for 
Members of Parliament. If the British law professor and 
other DOJ experts can convince the MP's to consider the 
law, as opposed to rejecting it outhand, then the 
Commission, with RLA support, will begin work on drafting 
such a law. The RLA recommends that if the MP's do indeed 
recommend consideration, then a component of Azeri chief 
prosecutors, judges, and MP's should go on a criminal 
procedure study tour to the U.S. to observe first hand how 
the system works. This further would complement the 
Prosecutor General's request that his trial attorneys 
become well-versed in the adversarial system. 
 
¶15. Comment:  With the departure of the ICITAP program in 
Azerbaijan, the Embassy has been pleased that the 
RLA/OPDAT program has been able to increase its scope and 
depth of engagement.  The RLA continues to lead meaningful 
efforts to develop and implement justice sector 
institutional, criminal procedure, and anti-corruption 
reform initiatives, including raising the consciousness of 
government and society, through formal and informal 
methods, as to the eventual benefits of a democratic 
society governed by rule of law and driven by a market 
economy. Accordingly, the Embassy strongly recommends the 
continuation of this highly active and useful INL-funded 
program. 
 
DERSE