Official: Azerbaijan launched criminal case into Meshali genocide in January 1992 PHOTO

Ilgar Safarov, Senior Assistant to the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General for Special Assignments, has said that the criminal case on the events in Meshali was initiated on January 11, 1992.

"Criminal case on the facts of genocide, deportation of persons of Azerbaijani nationality, destruction and damage of rural and state property and causing material damage on a large scale in Meshali village was initiated on January 11, 1992," Caliber.Az quotes him as saying.

On January 11, 1992, employees of the General Prosecutor's Office inspected the scene of the incident in Meshali.

Safarov also noted that as a result of a long investigation the identity of Khachatryan Vagif Cherkezovich was established, and since 2013 he had been on the international wanted list.

According to data provided by the Prosecutor General's Office, Khachatryan was born in 1955 in the Asgaran district of Azerbaijan. Prior to the onset of the First Karabakh War in 1991, he worked as a driver in the automobile transport enterprise of the city of Khankandi.

Subsequently, he joined the Armenian invaders in perpetrating ethnic cleansing against the Azerbaijani residents of the Karabakh region. In December 1991, Khachatryan and his associates were involved in the killing of 25 ethnic Azerbaijanis, injuring 14 others, and forcibly displacing 358 individuals in the Meshali village of the Khojaly district.