Today’s APA carries a news item reporting that Zamirjon Otajonov, the Uzbekistan citizen Armenian intelligence agencies charged with being a paid Azerbaijani agent provocateur, has given a press conference stating that he was “tortured” while being held in Armenia.

 

On October 10, 2012, Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) stated that Otajonov had confessed to having been paid by Azerbaijani intelligence to come to Armenia and offer his services as a terrorist, ready to travel to Baku and explode a bomb.

 

The NSS stated that the entire scenario was hatched by the Azerbaijani secret service to portray Armenia as a country that foments terrorism and that it sought to direct international attention away from the Ramil Safarov affair.

 

At the Baku press conference Otajonov is reported to have said that he was not given food or water and was tortured several times a day while in Armenian custody.