The court hearing of the criminal case into the two members of an Azerbaijani intelligence-gathering sabotage team continued Friday at the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), or Artsakh, capital city Stepanakert Court of First Instance.

At this hearing, the court issued details from the video recordings which the Azerbaijani saboteurs had made.

Artsakhpress reported that to Prosecutor Karen Gabrielyan’s question to defendant Dilham Askerov as to why he had earlier stated that they had not come across any soldiers when crossing the Karabakh-Azerbaijan border in the case when it was noted in the respective video recording that the Azerbaijani soldiers were telling them that, as if, they would die of starvation in the Shahumyan Region of Karabakh, whereas there is a lot of food here, the defendant denied this fact saying that he had not made any such comment, or video recording.

Askerov, who is also charged with the murder of Smbat Tsakanyan, also denied the prosecution’s evidence, according to which, meaning Tsakanyan, he had said in another video recording that they have picked up and are taking along with them a nearly twenty-year-old “piggy,” whom they cannot yet release, but Shahbaz Guliyev is watching over him.

Askerov agreed that even though the examination of his automatic weapon and the dead body of this Armenian teen prove to his guilt, he denied his involvement in the murder.

It is also noteworthy that Dilham Askerov has given contradictory testimony. On the one hand, he stated that Hasan Hasanov had picked up his automatic weapon wherewith they had killed Tsakanyan, and on the other hand, he noted that he had not exchanged his weapon with none of the sabotage team members.

According to the NKR Police, Azerbaijani citizens Shahbaz Guliyev (born in 1968), Dilham Askerov (born in 1960), and Hasan Hasanov, who was shot by law enforcement agents at the spot, illegally crossed the state border of Karabakh armed with a weapon and ammunition on June 29. The three entered the territory of the Shahumyan region of Karabakh as enemy spies to collect information and carry out espionage tasks.

On July 4, they kidnapped and murdered the citizen of Karabakh, 17-year-old Smbat Tsakanyan, whose body was found on July 15 with gunshot wounds in the forest at Shahumyan region. In addition, in the evening of July 11, on Vardenis-Karvachar highway Hasanov killed the resident of Yerevan Sargis Abrahamyan (born in 1971), and severely wounded the resident of Armenian Dzoraghbyur village Karine Davtyan.

Hasanov was armed and resisted during the arrest; as a result, he was neutralized by the NKR special forces. The two others, Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilham Askerov, were arrested and detained.

Dilham Askerov is charged for espionage; unauthorized border trespass; kidnapping and violence against a minor, committed by an organized group; murder committed by an organized group motivated by ethnic hatred; attempt of murder of two persons, committed by an organized group, motivated by ethnic hatred. Shahbaz Guliyev is charged for espionage; unauthorized border trespass; kidnapping and violence against a minor, committed by an organized group; murder committed by an organized group motivated by ethnic hatred.

report news.am

STEPANAKERT. – Members of the Azerbaijani sabotage group arrested in Nagorno-Karabakh pleaded partially guilty.

The first hearing into case of Dilgam Askerov and Shahbaz Guliyev was chaired by judge Anatoly Tadevosyan. The defendants’ lawyers – Erik Baghdasaryan and Arkady Israelyan – have been appointed by the state.

During the first day of the trial, identity of the defendants, family status and presence of prior conviction was clarified. It was revealed that Askerov lied in court, hiding 15-day jail term. Meanwhile, Guliyev spent 6 years in jail, and, as he said, was acquitted.

Both defendants said they accept guilt in part. Dilgam Askerov said he does not plead guilty in illegally crossing the border of Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh in 2005 accompanied by Shahbaz Guliyev and twice in 2007, with persons named Raffi and Vagif, and the second time alone with a plan to visit the gravee. At the same time, he accepted the charge of illegally crossing the border in 2014 with Shahbaz Guliyev and Hasan Hasanov. Askerov did not accept charges of espionage as well as kidnapping and murdering minor Smbat Tsakanyan. Meanwhile, the charge of illegal possession of weapons, money theft, documents and cattle were accepted.

Shahbaz Guliyev also pleaded partially guilt. According to Guliyev, in 2005, “he was not aware of the presence of the border”. In 2014, he crossed the border still being unaware of the border.

“Dilgam said there is no one there, and we believed him,” Guliyev said. He also partially accepted the charges of illegal possession of weapons.

“Weapons were given on the border. And in 2005, I was unarmed,” he said, thus contradicting the previous assertion that he did not know of the existence of the border. Charges of kidnapping a minor were not accepted as well (Guliyev is not charged with murder – ed).

“I gave him bread. I was with them [(associates], saw everything, but did not do anything,” the defendant said.

Source: news.am

GOHAR ABRAHAMYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

According to the most recent reports from Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian villagers was killed by sniper fire when working on the land, while the body of a 17-year-old resident of the Karvachar district, who had been missing since July 4 and whose disappearance was linked to the recent sabotage activities of Azerbaijani forces, was found quite a long distance from his community.

According to official reports, Arvid Danielyan, a resident of the Askeran district of the NKR, was operating a tractor in the field when he was fatally shot in the head. A criminal case has been instituted in connection with this killing.

It also became known that the body of 17-year-old Smbat Tsakanyan, from the village of Nor Erkej of the Karvachar district, was found. His parents think their son was kidnapped and then killed by Azeri commandos. Talking to reporters on Tuesday, Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan did not rule out a connection between the teenager’s disappearance and the Azeri infiltration in Karvachar.

An Azeri reconnaissance-sabotage group attempted to penetrate into the Armenian-controlled territory last Wednesday, but its movement was spotted by frontline Karabakh units that managed to thwart the raid. Some of the group members were captured, others fled, according to the report. Later, one of the members of the group that managed to penetrate into Karvachar attacked a car, killing 42-year-old officer Sargis Abrahamyan and wounding the wife of another serviceman, 37-year-old Karine Davtyan. The attacker was later killed by Armenian forces. Two other members of the group were apprehended by Karabakh forces that reported the “neutralization” of all saboteurs on Monday afternoon.

The arrested saboteurs were identified as 46-year-old Shahbaz Guliyev and 56-year-old Dilham Askerov. According to the NKR Prosecutor’s Office, both of them were armed with automatic weapons, pistols with silencers, as well as hand grenades that were used in the reconnaissance-sabotage activities and espionage operations.

It said that a third person, whose personal data were being specified, was killed after showing resistance at the time of his arrest.

Earlier on Tuesday, Armenia’s defense minister also spoke about the criminal case against the Azeri saboteurs, saying that they will answer for their actions according to both Armenian laws and the requirements of international norms.

In response to claims in Azerbaijan that the arrested Azeris should be given prisoner of war status, which means that they are subject to repatriation, the Armenian side said it had ‘irrefutable evidence’ that they were members of a ‘criminal group’ recruited by Azerbaijani authorities for the purpose of carrying out sabotage activities.

Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan, in response to the Azeri application to the International Committee of the Red Cross, said that the order of communication with the members of the Azeri sabotage group would be specified after the publication of the charges brought against them as part of the criminal case.

Meanwhile, the latest Karvachar incidents fueled more speculation in Armenia about the possibility of renewed hostilities in Karabakh. But Deputy Director of the Yerevan-based Caucasus Institute, political analyst Sergey Minasyan said the events in Karvachar are not an indication of a planned full-scale war, as at this moment there is only “a psychological battle of nerves between the two sides” and “these are common signs of military activity, after which there will be a period of relative calm.”

According to political analyst Tigran Abrahamyan, Azerbaijan has made some tactical changes in its steps on the frontline and now the Karabakh resettlement process has become the target for Azeri forces.

“It is known that at various international structures Azerbaijan has constantly raised the issue of Artsakh’s resettlement, stating that the process is contrary to the logic of the negotiations. Realizing that these arguments are devoid of logic and that the war rhetoric does not prevent the resettlement process, Azerbaijan has resorted to unacceptable steps as it uses terrorist actions to intimidate the people who have either settled down or have a desire to live in Artsakh,” the analyst said.