STEPANAKERT. – On December  13, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Nagorno-Karabakh again visited Azerbaijani prisoners Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, and provided them with an opportunity to exchange family news. 

Communication officer of the ICRC Mission in Nagorno-Karabakh, Eteri Musayelyan, informed about the above-said to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

“According to its mandate, the ICRC will continue its visits to these individuals in detention on a regular basis to monitor treatment and conditions of detention and help to ensure that the detainees are able to maintain contact with their families,” added Musayelyan.

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.