N. Korea not the only country to kill foreign citizens for fictional crimes

PanARMENIAN.Net - The death of Otto Warmbier, an American student who was detained in Pyongyang for 17 months, has shaken the world. But apparently North Korea is not the only country in the world that kills foreign civilians for alleged crimes against itself.

Azerbaijan too has a record of killing Armenian nationals who just happen to involuntarily cross the border. Due to the ongoing conflict surrounding Nagorno Karabakh, the two South Caucasus nations have no diplomatic ties, while the state border is still closed. Civilians living in border communities, however, sometimes get lost in the woods and find themselves on the other side of the frontier. And those who cross to Azerbaijan end up in prison or die shortly afterwards.

The first such case was registered back in September 2010, when Manvel Saribekyan, a resident of the village of Ttujur of Gegharkunik province, went with his friends to the forest to find the missing cattle and for firewood. A week later, the media disseminated information about the capture by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces of an "Armenian intelligence officer." In October, the Azerbaijani ministry of defense and the military prosecutor's office issued a joint statement claiming that Saribekyan had committed suicide. When his body was returned to Armenia, the forensic examination revealed numerous bodily injuries, signs of torture, which were caused one or two days before his death and could by no means have been the result of suicide by hanging.

Several years later -- in January 2014 -- 77-year-old resident of the village of Verin Karmiraghbur Mamikon Khojoyan was captured when he lost his way and crossed the border to Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani side initially tried to pass the old man off as a saboteur, but eventually returned him to Armenia more than a month later. Khojoyan was diagnosed with serious health problems, including multiple bruises and fractures. Khojoyan underwent several surgeries and managed to tell the Armenian authorities that he was beaten and tortured in captivity. He passed away several days later.

In August 2014 when a resident of the village of Chinari in Armenia’s Tavush province, Karen Petrosyan went to the forest nearby for firewood and, getting lost, found himself in the territory of Azerbaijan. Petrosyan, according to the Azerbaijani media, "suddenly" died in Baku. According to preliminary information, the cause of death was "acute cardiovascular failure". It’s worth mentioning that Azerbaijan represented Petrosyan as a saboteur and a spy, and went as far as to present photographs, allegedly taken from his cell phone. However, the quality of the pictures, the old model of the mobile phone and the absence of persons in the photo indicate that these photos were not taken from this mobile phone, but, most likely, uploaded later, after Petrosyan was captured. There is every reason to believe that Petrosyan died the same night as a result of the tortures of the Azerbaijani military.