The court trial of the criminal case into defendants Dilham Askerov and Shahbaz Guliyev, the two members of an Azerbaijani intelligence-gathering sabotage team, resumed Wednesday at the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR; Artsakh) capital city Stepanakert seat of the NKR First Instance General Jurisdiction Court.

The automatic weapons, grenades and shells, and killed Smbat Tsakanyan’s track suit, money and mobile phone cards, which the saboteurs had taken from his pocket, were submitted to the court, Artsakhpress informed.         

Injured party Vrezh Balayan’s military service record book, passport and jacket, which were found in Askerov’s possession, also were submitted to the court.  

In addition, the expert conclusion’s record was made public during the hearing. Accordingly, all the shells, which had caused Tsakanyan’s death, were fired from the same automatic weapon which Askerov had carried.       

Both defendants confirmed that the aforementioned weapons and other items were theirs, and informed which one of them carried which automatic weapon.

Guliyev also reaffirmed the testimony he gave in the previous court hearings, according to which, upon hearing gunshots, he had turned around and seen that Askerov’s automatic weapon was aimed at the killed teenager. Askerov, on the other hand, had given an unclear response.    

According to the NKR Police, Azerbaijani citizens Shahbaz Guliyev (born in 1968), Dilham Askerov (born in 1960), and Hasan Hasanov—who was shot and killed by law enforcement agents at the spot—illegally crossed the state border of Karabakh, and armed with weapons and ammunition on June 29. 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 murdered the 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 Yerevan resident Sargis Abrahamyan (born in 1971), and severely wounded Armenian 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.

The aforesaid court trial began on October 27.