Azerbaijani Court Grants Rebuttal Rights To Parties At Trial Of Armenian Citizens

(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 11. The trial in the criminal case against citizens of Armenia continued at the Baku Military Court on December 11, and the parties were given the opportunity to exercise their right to rebuttal during the court hearing, Trend reports.

Senior Assistant to the Prosecutor General Vusal Aliyev first spoke about the part of the case that disputed the roles of the accused in the criminal group. He recalled that, according to the defense, a criminal group is created to commit criminal offenses, based on world experience.

According to the prosecutor defending the state prosecution, the evidence examined at the trial confirmed that the aforementioned criminal groups had begun to form several years before the start of the first Karabakh war.

"It's true that the evidence examined established that these groups were indeed supported and armed by the Armenian leadership. However, later we saw that the leaders and members of these armed groups held important political and military posts in the so-called organization created in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and in Armenia. That is, these groups were not random, arbitrary units and later became part of the criminal army that occupied the territories of Azerbaijan.

As for the accused, for example, David Manukyan was a member of the Shusha battalion, and Davit Ishkhanyan was the commander of the '28th Martuni' battalion. However, these and other battalions were precisely the renamed, more organized, and militarized form of the aforementioned illegal groups," Aliyev said.

Fifteen defendants of Armenian origin are accused in the criminal case concerning numerous crimes committed during the aggressive war waged by the Armenian state-including the aforementioned criminal association - on the territory of Azerbaijan, in violation of domestic and international legal norms. These crimes were committed for the purpose of military aggression against Azerbaijan and were carried out under the direct leadership and participation of the Armenian state, officials of its state institutions, its armed forces, and illegal armed formations, through their written and verbal orders, instructions, and guidelines; material, technical, and personnel support; centralized management; as well as under strict control and under the leadership and direct or indirect participation of Robert Sedraki Kocharyan, Serzh Azati Sargsyan, Vazgen Mikaeli Manukyan, Vazgen Zaveni Sargsyan, Samvel Andraniki Babayan, Vitali Mikaeli Balasanyan, Zori Hayki Balayan, Seyran Musheghi Ohanyan, Arshavir Surenovich Garamyan, Monte Charles Melkonyan, and others.

The following individuals-Arayik Vladimiri Harutyunyan, Arkadi Arshaviri Ghukasyan, Bako Sahaki Sahakyan, Davit Rubeni Ishkhanyan, David Azatini Manukyan, Davit Klimi Babayan, Levon Henrikovich Mnatsakanyan, Vasili Ivani Beglaryan, Erik Roberti Ghazaryan, Davit Nelsoni Allahverdiyan, Gurgen Homeri Stepanyan, Levon Romiki Balayan, Madat Arakelovich Babayan, Garik Grigori Martirosyan, and Melikset Vladimiri Pashayan-are being charged under the following articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan: Article 100 (planning, preparing, initiating, and waging a war of aggression); Article 102 (attacking persons or organizations enjoying international protection); Article 103 (genocide); Article 105 (extermination of the population); Article 106 (enslavement); Article 107 (deportation or forced displacement of population); Article 109 (persecution); Article 110 (enforced disappearance of persons); Article 112 (deprivation of liberty contrary to international law); Article 113 (torture); Article 114 (mercenary service); Article 115 (violation of the laws and customs of warfare); Article 116 (violation of international humanitarian law during armed conflict); Article 118 (military robbery); Article 120 (intentional murder); Article 192 (illegal entrepreneurship); Article 214 (terrorism); Article 214-1 (financing terrorism); Article 218 (creation of a criminal organization); Article 228 (illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation, and possession of weapons, ammunition, explosives, and devices); Article 270-1 (acts threatening aviation security); Article 277 (assassination of a state official or public figure); Article 278 (forcible seizure and retention of power, forcible change of the constitutional structure of the state); Article 279 (creation of armed groups not provided for by law); and additional articles.

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