Azerbaijani Activist Sentenced On Unknown Charges

BAKU -- The wife of Azerbaijani opposition activist Mahir Bayramli says he has been sentenced to five days of prison detention.

Gulbaniz Uluturk told RFE/RL that the trial of her husband, who is a Musavat party member, was held behind closed doors in Ganca on March 8, one day after his arrest in Azerbaijan's second-largest city.

Uluturk said she did not know what the charges against her husband were.

In the capital, Baku, police detained youth activists Baxtiyar Quliyev and Sahin Novruzov after allegedly finding drugs and explosives in their houses.

A third activist, Mahammad Azizov, has been missing since March 7.

The developments come after opposition activists announced plans for a protest rally on March 10 against the deaths of military conscripts.

Two army conscripts have died in Azerbaijan under mysterious circumstances in the past two weeks.

*CORRECTION: Mahir Bayramli was sentenced to five days of prison detention, not five years in prison, as originally reported.