Criminal Cases Against 14 Armenian Captives to Be Heard at Baku's Serious Crimes Court

A criminal case against Armenian captives in Azerbaijan has been accepted for proceedings, according to minval.az, which details that Baku classifies them as 'saboteurs' and accuses them of 'terrorism, provocations, and other crimes.'

The criminal case against 14 Armenians will be heard at Baku's Serious Crimes Court, under the judgeship of Afghan Hajiyev. The court's preparatory session is set to take place in the coming days.

It is noted that charges have been filed against Hratch Arzumanyan, Gegham Sambelyan Serobyan, and others (a total of 14 individuals) under the Azerbaijani Criminal Code articles 214.2.1, 214.2.3 (terrorism committed by a group, organized group, or criminal organization using weapons and devices as weapons), 228.3 (illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation, or carrying of weapons, ammunition, explosive substances, and explosive devices by an organized group), 279.2 (creation of armed formations or groups not envisaged by the Republic of Azerbaijan's legislation, and assault on enterprises, institutions, organizations, or individuals as part of those formations or groups), and 318.2 (illegal crossing of the State border of the Republic of Azerbaijan by a group of persons or organized group with preliminary conspiracy).

It should be noted that according to Armenian sources, approximately 200 Armenian captives continue to be held in Azerbaijan following the end of the war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Meanwhile, Baku claims that all military captives have been returned in accordance with the trilateral declaration, and currently held Armenian captives are considered 'terrorists' and 'saboteurs.'