Azeri court sentences Armenian serviceman to 15 years in prison

PanARMENIAN.Net - A former Armenian serviceman who crossed the Azerbaijani border in December has been sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment in Azerbaijan.

The criminal case, in which Arsen Baghdasaryan, a former officer of the Nagorno Karabakh defense army, was accused of border transgression, was heard by the Ganja Court on Grave Crimes, Tert.am reports citing APA.

At a hearing held earlier, the prosecutor called for a longer conviction period -18 years.

Baghdasaryan had been in Azerbaijani captivity since December 27.

Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement later that he was detained amid a subversive cross border infiltration attempt.

Azerbaijan’s defense army, however, denied the report, noting that the man had been suspended from service by the command’s decision for voluntarily quitting his post.

The Azeri court sentence is obviously an act of revenge to Nagorno Karabakh where Azeri saboteurs were given jail terms.

In late December, a court in Nagorno Karabakh sentenced one Azerbaijani man to life imprisonment and another to 22 years in prison on charges stemming from the murder of an Armenian teenager which led to their high-profile arrests in July. In a verdict condemned by Azerbaijan’s government, Dilgam Askerov and Shahbaz Quliyev were convicted of illegal border crossing and arms possession, espionage and kidnapping. Askerov, who was jailed for life, was also found guilty of killing Smbat Tsakanian, a 17-year-old Armenian resident of the Kelbajar district sandwiched between Armenia and Karabakh.