Criminal Hearing Against Azerbaijani Saboteurs Begins in Karabakh

The criminal case against two Azerbaijani saboteurs who entered Nagorno Karabakh through Karvajar (Kelbajar) in July of this year, began in the capital Stepanakert on October 27.

Dilham Askerov and Shahbaz Guliyev are accused in the kidnapping and murder of 17-year-old Smbat Tsakanyan on July 4, whose bullet riddled body was found in the woods by his village of Jomard about 25 km from Karvachar in Karabakh a day after his family had reported him missing. Askerov and Guliyev are also accused of a roadside ambush on July 11 on the Vardenis-Karvachar highway, which resulted in the death of Major Sargis Abrahamyan and severely wounded his passenger Karine Davityan, the wife of a local military commander.

Following their capture, law-enforcement authorities in Karabakh opened criminal proceedings against the two men. The General Prosecutor’s Office of Nagorno Karabakh released a statement on July 14, where it stated that Azerbaijani citizens, Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilham Askerov had been captured after special operations by the NKR Defense Army, National Security Service and police forces. The statement said that the saboteurs were armed with different weapons which they used in their attacks against Armenians in Karabakh.

The Armenian Defense Ministry at the time had said that the illegal crossing of the border, the murders and attempted murders, attempts to photograph “specially protected areas” and other crimes served as irrefutable evidence that the men were members of a criminal group recruited by the authorities in Azerbaijan to carry out sabotage activities in Karabakh. As such, Article 4 of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War would not be applied to the men.

Askerov and Guliyev have been charged with a number of articles of the criminal code. Karabakh authorities have said that they will conduct the hearing within the spirit and letter of the law.

A hashtag for Twitter, #AzeSaboteurs has been set up so that all those who want to follow the updates from the court proceedings can do so.For Armenian, click here