BAKU (Reuters) - Azerbaijan handed a group of 17 militants jail sentences of between five years and life on Wednesday for links to al Qaeda, a court official said.
Azeri security forces arrested most of the men in late 2007 in a sting operation during which they uncovered an arms cache that included machine guns, pistols, hand-grenades and explosives.
The group was accused of possessing illegal weapons, creating an armed group, weapons trading, crossing borders and resisting law enforcement officers during arrest.
Sandwiched between Iran, Russia and Turkey, Azerbaijan sells oil and gas to the West from reserves in the Caspian Sea, much of the oil flowing through a BP-led pipeline.
Most of Azerbaijan's 9 million people are Shi'ite Muslim, but the government under President Ilham Aliyev is strictly secular and an ally of both the United States and Russia.
The majority of Azeris take a relaxed attitude towards religion, but officials say Islam's influence in the country is growing.
(Reporting by Lada Yevgrashina; writing by Margarita Antidze in Tbilisi)
