Ex-Premier Gets Life Term for Coup Effort

The Supreme Court sentenced Azerbaijan’s former prime minister to life in prison for his involvement in a 1994 coup attempt. After a trial lasting seven months, the court in Baku, the capital, found ex-Prime Minister Suret Guseinov guilty on about 40 charges, including high treason for leading the coup attempt. Guseinov, prime minister at the time of the attempted putsch, briefly seized control of parts of the former Soviet republic. But he fled to Russia when the coup collapsed and was arrested outside Moscow in 1997 and extradited to Azerbaijan. The court also found Guseinov guilty of organizing coup attempts in 1995 and 1996 while he was living in Russia.