A district court in Yerevan on Tuesday ruled to sentence Samvel Babayan, a former defense minister of Nagorno-Karbabakh (Artsakh), to six years in prison over charges of weapons smuggling and money laundering.

Babayan, also known as a veteran of the Artsakh liberation war, was found guilty of complicity in the illegal trafficking of the shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile system (Igla), and the import of a big batch of invalid Euro banknotes.

In a speech at the hearing, the prosecutor demanded seven years’ imprisonment for the ex-commander.

Sanasar Gabrielyan and Armen Poghosyan, also facing charges in the weapons smuggling case, were sentenced to three and two years, respectively.

Four others standing trial over money-laundering were sentenced from 2-2.5 years in prison. Those with the longest terms (Karen Kocharyan and Andranik Kocharyan) were given two years’ probation.