Meshali genocide eyewitness: Samvel Babayan is the main perpetrator VIDEO/UPDATED

Samvel Babayan is the main criminal.

The victim Azay Karimov stated this today at the regular session of the court on the criminal case of Khachaturyan Vagif Cherkezovich, accused of committing genocide in the village of Meshali of Khojaly region as part of Armenian illegal armed groups, Trend reports.

He noted that Khachaturyan and other participants of the genocide in Meshali were only executors.

"Samvel Babayan spent nine months in Shusha prison, after which he was released without trial. Now he is making press statements in Armenia, as are Vagif Khachaturyan's friends whom I know. They are from our village.

Khachaturyan and his gang are only executors. The main criminal is Samvel Babayan," Karimov emphasised.

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At today's court session on the criminal case of Vagif Cherkezovich Khachaturyan, accused of committing genocide in Meshali village of Khojaly district as a member of illegal Armenian armed groups, Reserve Colonel Azay Karimov testified as a witness.  

According to APA, the witness noted that he knows Vagif Khachaturyan:

"I was a serviceman. After 20 January 1990, as a senior lieutenant, I returned to Azerbaijan after serving in the Soviet army and started working in the police in Shusha. There was already a conflict going on in Karabakh. [Robert] Kocharyan, [Serzh] Sargsyan, Vitaly Balasanyan incited Armenians and brought them to rallies. Kocharyan's team threatened to kill Armenians who did not join the rally or take up arms, and raped girls from families who did not join them. There was a second team that killed Armenians fleeing from the trenches. Vagif Khachaturyan was detained in Shusha. During my service, 337 Armenians were arrested, Vagif was among them. Together with him, we detained 4 people. We held him for a couple of months, then he bit his vein. We took him to the hospital where he got stitches. Then he found a way and got out.

The witness said that he was the head of the Malybeyli battalion at the time of the conflict: "On the day of the events, I travelled from there to Meshali. We took action against the perpetrators of the events in Meshali. When I reached the village, 11 Armenians were already looting. We neutralised them and took them out of the village".

Azay Karimov added that the most serious crimes against Azerbaijanis were committed by Samvel Babayan, Garib and others: "People like Vagif forced Armenians to commit crimes against Azerbaijanis. Samvel Babayan was the first. We kept him in Shusha, he stayed in prison for 9 months but somehow managed to go free. I am a colonel, I will not lie".