12 July 2024
An Azerbaijani court on Friday sentenced Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian Rashid Beglaryan to 15 years imprisonment, on charges including ‘committing genocide’.
The charges against Beglaryan, 62, included ‘committing genocide and terrorism against Azerbaijanis in Khojaly’.
According to Turan, the verdict noted that Beglaryan will serve the first five years of his sentence in a general regime prison and the remainder in a strict regime penitentiary.
The charges against him also reportedly included torturing Azerbaijani prisoners and other individuals, as well as committing other ‘serious’ and war crimes, ‘and participating in the activities of illegal Armenian armed groups’ during the first Nagorno-Karabakh war.
Reports also noted that Rashid Beglaryan admitted during interrogation that he had participated in the Khojaly massacre in February 1992.
According to Turan, the State Security Service added that individuals who were subjected to torture were identified and recognised as victims.
Amidst deteriorating Azerbaijan-France relations, Azerbaijani media in June quoted Beglaryan as saying that French citizens had ‘donated’ €2 million ($2.2 million) to him ‘as aid’ without providing additional details of the transfer.
Beglaryan was detained by Azerbaijani border guards in early August 2023, during the nine month blockade in the region that started in December.
While Azerbaijani authorities accused Beglaryan of attempting to cross illegally from Azerbaijan into Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh authorities stated that he was under the influence of alcohol and lost his way.
At the time, Beglaryan was the second Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian to be detained by Azerbaijan in less than a week.
On 30 July, Vagif Khachatryan was arrested while trying to cross the Lachin checkpoint with the Red Cross to undergo heart surgery in Armenia. Azerbaijan accused him of committing war crimes during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.
A year and a half later, Khachatryan was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of taking part in a massacre of Azerbaijani civilians in the village of Meshali, near Khojaly, charges he and his family denied.
