Armenia’s Foreign Ministry reports that Azerbaijani law enforcement detained three university students today when they were returning to Yerevan from Karabakh along the Lachin Corridor.

Earlier, the Artsakh government’s press service reported that one student, Alen Sargsyan, had been detained.

The ministry has identified the other two as Vahe Hovsepyan and Levon Grigoryan, adding that all three were being escorted by Russian peacekeepers.

Azerbaijani media claim the three students were in a group of amateur football players from the town of Martun,i featured in a 2021 social media video, who stepped on the Azerbaijani flag.

Update: Azerbaijani media report the country's Prosecutor General (PG) has decided to drop criminal charges against the three and keep them under "administrative detainment" for ten days and then expell them from Azerbaijan. "They sincerely expressed remorse for their actions and pledged not to engage in such activities in the future," reads a PG statement.