ArmInfo. Armenian citizen Karen Ghazaryan, who was captured in Azerbaijan last July, was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Azerbaijani court. The Azerbaijani media reports this.
To note, Karen Ghazaryan, a resident of the Tavush village of Berdavan, was charged with attempting to commit a terrorist act in the territory of Azerbaijan.
Today in the Ganja Grave Crimes Court, the trial of the criminal case of Ghazaryan has ended. The court sentenced Ghazaryan to 20 years in prison in a penal institution serving a strict regime.
Ghazaryan was accused under the following articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan: "Crimes against life and health" (120-143) - 120.2.12; 120.2.7; 120.2.11; 120.2.5; 120.2.1; "Crimes in the sector of economic activity" (190-213) - 206.3.2; "Crimes against public security" (214-233) - 214.2.1; 228.1; 214-3.1; 214.2.3; "Crimes against the foundations of the constitutional system and the security of the state" (274-285) - 282.1; 276; "Crimes against the order of control" (315-326) - 318.2.
To recall, on July 15, Karen Ghazaryan was on the territory of Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani side declared "preventing attempts of sabotage penetration", as well as the capture of a soldier Karen Ghazaryan (b. 1984).
A spokesman for the Armenian Defense Ministry Artsrun Hovhannisyan officially announced that Karen Ghazaryan does not serve and has never served in the army. However, this did not prevent Azerbaijan from declaring Ghazaryan a "saboteur" and starting a trial.
The trial of Kazaryan started on November 6, 2018 in Ganja. The trial against Ghazaryan provoked the indignation of Ghazaryan's relatives. In this regard, on November 17-18, Ghazaryan's relatives, as well as his fellow villagers, blocked the road, demanding that the authorities return Karen Ghazaryan from Azerbaijani captivity.
Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, during the meeting with journalists stated that he is ready to meet with relatives of Karen Ghazaryan, who is in Azerbaijan's captivity. He said that he received an appeal from the relatives of Ghazaryan with a request for a meeting and ordered it to be organized.
"My wife visited the family twice. The question never went unnoticed," Pashinyan said, recalling that another Armenian citizen Zaven Karapetyan is in Azerbaijan (the official statement about the capture takes place in July 2017).
Acting Prime Minister said that the Azerbaijani side proposes to change "all for all". ''Should we go for it? And we asked the families of those killed. During the terrorist infiltration of Hasan Hasanov, Dilham Askerov (sentenced to life by the NKR court) and Shahbaz Guliyev (sentenced to 20 years in prison by the NKR court) two people were killed, including an 18-year-old boy. That is, to return to Azerbaijan two of Ramil Safarov? I understand and respect the tragedy of the Ghazarian family. But I am saying directly - it is incomprehensible to me to block the road to Georgia. That is, is there something that we could have done and not done? This is a misunderstanding of the situation. The prime minister and the government are obliged to think equally about both,",Pashinyan stressed.