Court in Azerbaijan lifts grave crime charges from Armenian militaries

Twelve Armenian military servicemen will be set free in Azerbaijan according to a Baku court decision. They were found guilty of illegally crossing the Azerbaijani border, while charges of committing grave crimes have been dropped from them.

The court dropped charges of grave crimes against 14 Armenian militaries detained in December in Nagorno-Karabakh, and found them guilty only of illegally crossing the Azerbaijani border near the dwelling settlement of Gadrut. According to the verdict, two convicts received four years of imprisonment each; other 12 ones – six months each, which they have already served in custody.

According to Azerbaijani investigators, a group of Armenian residents had purchased weapons and ammunition and created an armed grouping. On November 26-27, 2020, they crossed the Azerbaijani border and took up combat positions in a forest near Gadrut in the Khodjavend District. Until December 13, 2020, these residents of Armenia committed armed attacks on enterprises and institutions in Azerbaijan. The grouping also attacked people, and committed explosions and fires, the “Trend.az” has cited the investigators’ version.

According to the source, "the convicts had been forcibly sent to perform their mission in Azerbaijan under a threat of criminal prosecution in Armenia."

According to Rasul Djafarov, the head of the Baku Human Rights Club, a lenient sentence to the Armenian militaries may be the result of agreements reached by the parties. However, he found it difficult to explain why two convicts received longer prison terms; and they are still kept behind bars.