STEPANAKERT. – The trial on the criminal case into Azerbaijani saboteurs Dilham Askerov and Shahbaz Guliyev is over.

The court sentenced Dilham Askerov to life imprisonment and Shahbaz Guliyev to 22 years in jail during the hearings on Monday, Artsakhpress reported.

According to the NKR Police, Azerbaijani citizens Shahbaz Guliyev (born in 1968), Dilham Askerov (born in 1960), and Hasan Hasanov—who was killed by the Armenian armed forces while rendering the saboteurs ineffective—illegally crossed the state border of Karabakh on June 29, and they were armed with weapons and ammunition. The three entered the territory of the Shahumyan region of Karabakh as spies to collect information and carry out espionage.

On July 4, they kidnapped and subsequently murdered a Karabakh citizen, 17-year-old Smbat Tsakanyan, whose body was found on July 15 with gunshot wounds in a forest at Shahumyan region.

In addition, on the evening of July 11, Hasanov killed Armenia capital city Yerevan resident Sargis Abrahamyan (born in 1971), and severely wounded Armenia’s Dzoraghbyur village resident Karine Davtyan, on the Vardenis-Karvachar Highway. Hasanov was armed and he resisted during the arrest; as a result, he was neutralized by the NKR special forces. The two others, Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilham Askerov, were detained, and they now stand trial in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.