Details of Azerbaijani citizens’ trial in Nagorno Karabakh

Azerbaijani saboteurs Dilham Askerov and Shahbaz Guliyev pleaded partially guilty at the trial that began today in the general jurisdiction court of first instance in the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

According to Pastinfo.am, Dilham Askerov said that he was in Nagorno Karabakh before 2014 - three times together with Guliyev in 2005 and twice in 2007 when he went to Karabakh alone and together with two other men named Raffi and Vagif. Askerov said he went to Nagorno Karabakh to visit graves of his relatives. He pleaded not guilty to the charge of violating the state border of the NKR.

Askerov pleaded not guilty to charges of espionage, kidnapping and killing teenager Smbat Tsakanyan. He admitted to illegal carrying of weapons, theft of documents and cattle.

His partner in crime, Shahbaz Guliyev, pleaded guilty to the charge of violating the state border which he committed this year together with a certain Hasan Hasanov. Guliyev clams that he allegedly did not know that it was an illegal act.

“Dilham said that there was not anyone and we believed him,” Guliyev said. He also claims that in 2005 he was not aware of the existence of a state border between the NKR and Azerbaijan. As regards carrying of weapons, Guliyev said he received weapons at the border, but he did not name the man who gave him the weapons. The Azerbaijani also said that in 2005 he infiltrated into the territory of Nagorno Karabakh, and he was unarmed at that time.

Guliyev declared he did not fire shot, neither was he involved in the abduction and murder of the teenager. In his words, he was present and saw everything, but he did not participate. Moreover, he even gave some food to the boy.

Both defendants said they were convicted in the past: one of them was sentenced to 6 years in prison, the other – to 15 days.