Trial of Armenian PoWs to continue in Baku on June 23

PanARMENIAN.Net - The next court hearing on the criminal case against Armenian prisoners of war Lyudvik Mkrtchyan and Alyosha Khosrovyan, illegally being held in Azerbaijan since their detention during the war in Nagorno-Karabakh in late 2020, will be held in Baku's Yasamal District Court on Wednesday, June 23.

The two are accused of "torture and cruel treatment of Azerbaijani prisoners of war during the first Karabakh war", Sputnik Azerbaijan reports.

A court in Baku earlier handed a 20-year jail term to Viken Euljekjian, another Armenian captive, and a citizen of Lebanon, illegally detained in Azerbaijan. He was charged with "mercenary activity", "terrorism", "illegal border crossing." Euljekjian, however, did not plead guilty on Monday, June 14, revealing that he had testified under pressure.

Azerbaijan is refusing to return all Armenian prisoners of war, in violation of the statement on the cessation of hostilities signed by the parties in November 2020. The Armenian side has information about some 200 Armenians still in Azerbaijan’s captivity, but Azeri President Ilham Aliyev claims that persons being kept in Baku are not PoWs, but “terrorists and saboteurs”. At least 19 of the hundreds of Armenian captives have been tortured and killed, according to their lawyers. In addition, six Armenian troops were captured on Armenian soil in late May.