An Azerbaijani court today sentenced former Artsakh resident Rashid Beglaryan to fifteen years imprisonment after finding him guilty of “war crimes”, this according to Azerbaijani government’s APA news agency.

Azerbaijani security forces detained Beglaryan in August 2023, claiming he illegally crossed a section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

On August 2, the National Security Service of Artsakh reported that Rashid Beglaryan, left the village of Hin Shen under the influence of alcohol, got lost, and ended up in the territory controlled by Azerbaijan and was arrested by Azerbaijani border guards.

Azerbaijan’s General Prosecutor’s Office, at the time, claimed Beglaryan was a member of an illegal armed group that committed ethnic cleansing in Karabakh’s Khojaly region in December 1991.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry described the incident as an “abduction and a gross violation of international humanitarian law”.

The European Court of Human Rights, on August 3, 2023, gave Azerbaijan ten days to provide information regarding the plight of Beglaryan.

Photo: APA