Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsperson) of Azerbaijan, Elmira Suleymanova, admitted her mistake, and confirmed that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had not issued a statement regarding the case of Azerbaijani citizens Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, who are imprisoned in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR/Artsakh).

The Azerbaijan ombudswoman’s staff informed that the ICRC does not express a view on the reasons for arrests, legal domain for being in custody, and legality of the sentence, reported APA news agency of Azerbaijan.

On December 9, the Azerbaijan ombudswoman had issued a scandalous statement, and attributed to the ICRC president an utterly incorrect statement regarding the case of Asgarov and Guliyev.

“They [i.e. the ICRC] told us that the punishment against Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev does not comply with the norms of international law and runs contrary to it,” Suleymanova had said. 

In response, however, the ICRC issued a clarification, and dismissed this statement by the Azerbaijan ombudswoman.

And after thinking for a while, Elmira Suleymanova confirmed this clarification.

“The ICRC never expresses an opinion on the reasons for arrests, legal domain for being in custody, and legality of the sentence,” she noted.

Azerbaijani citizens Shahbaz Guliyev (born in 1968), Dilgam Asgarov (born in 1960), and Hasan Hasanov—who was killed by the Armenian armed forces while rendering these saboteurs ineffective—had illegally crossed the NKR state border on June 29, 2014, and they were armed with weapons and ammunition. The three had entered the territory of the Shahumyan Region of Karabakh, and as spies, to collect information and carry out espionage.

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

In addition, on the evening of July 11, 2014, Hasanov had 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 arrest; as a result, he was neutralized by the NKR special forces. Guliyev and Asgarov, on the other hand, were detained, and they faced trial in the NKR.

Asgarov 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.

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 sentenced Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev to life and 22 years, respectively, in prison.