Farhad and Rafiq Aliyevs' trial starts

Opposition figures and supporters of the brothers, Rafiq and Farhad Aliyev, say the charges they face of economic crimes, including bribe-taking and tax evasion, are politically motivated.

Journalists and diplomats were not allowed into the opening session of the trial, which local human rights activist Elchin Behbudov said "bears witness to the fact that this is a made-to-order legal process and will be carried out unobjectively."

Rafiq Aliyev is former chief of the private oil company Azpetrol. His brother is a former Economic Development Minister and one of a dozen people arrested in 2005 in connection with the alleged coup plot.

The opposition says the arrests were part of an effort by the government to manipulate the vote in parliamentary elections that year. The arrests came shortly before the elections.

Rafiq Aliyev had not been charged with participation in the plot. The Associated Press

/The International Herald Tribune/