Investigation into case of Armenian reconnaissance, sabotage group underway

By Sara Rajabova - AzerNews 

Azerbaijan is conducting an investigation to find out other members of the criminal group that included Armenian saboteur Arsen Bagdasaryan,

Khanlar Valiyev, Azerbaijan’s Military Prosecutor and Lieutenant-General of Justice made the remark while talking to local media on October 1.

He added that a criminal investigation has been launched against Armenian spy Bagdasaryan, who was member of an Armenian reconnaissance-sabotage group.

Professional serviceman Bagdasaryan Arsen Edwardovich was captured by Azerbaijani soldiers while attempting to cross the Aghdam region along the contact line last December and handed over to law enforcement agencies.

Valiyev said Bagdasaryan is being charged under the Criminal Code articles 218.2 (participation in a criminal community), 29,120.2.1 (attempt to a deliberate murder by a group of persons, on preliminary arrangement by a group of persons, by an organized group or criminal community), 29,120.2.7 (attempt to a deliberate murder of two or more persons), 29,120.2.12 (attempt to a deliberate murder motive by national, racial, religious hatred or enmity), 29,282.2 (attempt to use explosives, arson, or other actions directed at the destruction or damage of enterprises, construction, means of communication, or objects of life support of a population with a view to undermine the defensibility and economic safety of the Azerbaijan Republic).

Valiyev further noted that the criminal court proved the crimes committed by Baghdasaryan and that he was sentenced fairly.

“The Military Prosecutor’s Office is continuing an investigation into the case of other members of the criminal group,” he added.

Valiyev recalled that on November 21, 2012, under an order by the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General, the Military Prosecutor`s Office set up a special investigation group to seek out the facts of the murder, torture, and disabling of Azerbaijani captives and hostages by the Armenian armed forces in Nagorno-Karabakh and other occupied territories of Azerbaijan, as well as in Armenia, in addition to sabotages and terrorist attacks committed by Armenians, the deportation of the population, the destruction of material resources in the residential areas, the destruction of cultural-historic monuments, and other grave crimes committed by Armenians since 1988.

Under the article 103 and other articles of Azerbaijan’s Criminal Code which cover responsibility for genocide, arrest warrants were issued against 296 people for the Khojali, Garadagli, Meshali, and Baghanis-Ayrem tragedies as well as torture against captives and other crimes committed by the Armenian Armed Forces, Valiyev underlined.

The Prosecutor's Office and other law enforcement bodies of Azerbaijan have conducted separate criminal investigations on serious crimes committed by the Armenian armed forces in Nagorno-Karabakh and other Azerbaijani occupied territories since 1988.

About 15,000 investigations have been carried out since the procedural management over criminal investigations was entrusted to the Military Prosecutor's Office.