Azerbaijan drops criminal prosecution but imposes 10-day jail term for kidnapped Nagorno-Karabakh residents

YEREVAN, AUGUST 28, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani authorities have announced that the three residents of Nagorno-Karabakh kidnapped in Lachin Corridor will face a 10-day jail term.

In a statement, the Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan said the three men will not face criminal prosecution and instead imposed “administrative punishment in the form of a 10-day detention”, after which they will be “deported from Azerbaijani territory.”

On August 28, Azerbaijani border guards in the illegally installed checkpoint in Lachin Corridor kidnapped residents of Nagorno-Karabakh Alen Sargsyan, Vahe Hovsepyan and Levon Grigoryan. All three are students who were traveling to Armenia to continue their studies. The transport was agreed upon in advance and was being carried out with Russian peacekeeping escort.

The Foreign Ministry of Armenia called out the Azerbaijani authorities after the kidnapping and warned that Baku seeks to perpetrate collective punishment against the entire population in Nagorno-Karabakh.