STEPANAKERT. – The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) Court of Appeal will announce the judgment in a case of Azerbaijani saboteurs on March 10.

The Court of Appeal hearing into the case involving Azerbaijani saboteurs Dilham Askerov and Shahbaz Guliyev has commenced Thursday in the NKR capital city of Stepanakert.

The attorneys and their clients presented the complaints.

As reported earlier, 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 these saboteurs ineffective—had illegally crossed the state border of Karabakh on June 29, 2014, and they were armed with weapons and ammunition.

On July 4, 2014, they had kidnapped and subsequently murdered a Karabakh citizen, 17-year-old Smbat Tsakanyan, whose body was found on July 15, 2014, and with gunshot wounds, in a forest at the Shahumyan Region.

Azerbaijani saboteur Dilham Askerov was charged with espionage; unauthorized border trespass; kidnapping and violence against a minor, committed by an organized group; murder committed by an organized group motivated by ethnic hatred; and attempt of murder of two persons, committed by an organized group, motivated by ethnic hatred. The other Azerbaijani saboteur, Shahbaz Guliyev, was charged with espionage; unauthorized border trespass; kidnapping and violence against a minor, committed by an organized group; and murder committed by an organized group motivated by ethnic hatred.

And on December 29, 2014, the First Instance General Jurisdiction Court of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic had sentenced Dilham Askerov and Shahbaz Guliyev to life and 22 years, respectively, in prison. The saboteur’s attorneys, however, have appealed these sentences.