Vagif Khachaturyan apologises for crimes committed against Azerbaijanis

Vagif Khachaturyan, accused of the Meshali massacre, has apologised for crimes against Azerbaijanis.

"I apologise for the crimes we committed against Azerbaijanis," APA quotes him as saying during the ongoing court proceedings in Baku.

He also noted that he was detained by the police on 15 June 1991 and served a 1-month sentence in Shusha.

11:00

Another trial on the criminal case of Vagif Cherkezovich Khachaturyan, accused of committing genocide in Meshali village of Khojaly region as a member of illegal Armenian armed formations, has started at Yasamal District Court in Baku.

According to APA, the victims testified at the hearing.

The telegram sent to the court by Elnara Babayeva, recognised victim, was read out at the trial. She noted that she lives in Gabala with two small children and cannot appear in court. Elnara Babayeva confirmed the testimony she gave to the investigation and asked to impose the most severe punishment on Vagif Khachaturyan.

Alish Alishev appeared at the trial as a victim. He said that he was in the village with his family when the shooting took place:

"More than 1,000 people attacked our village. All the residents of Badara village. Vagif, Armais and others were there. They hit Ganimat with an axe. I personally saw Wagif. After that, they shot Ganimat. Although Vagif does not admit it now, he personally, his brother and his relatives were involved in the events of Meshali. I was the headmaster of a school in Meshali. Vagif knows me well."

The accused stated that he was not there on the day of the incident.

The victim said he saw him in front of the house of Saday, the village's resident: "The sniper shot my elderly mother too. Our village was shelled from the Alazani. Those who ate our bread betrayed us. They surrounded our village. We had a road in the direction of Lachin. There was fighting in every street. Vagif does not recognise this now. Twenty-five people from our village became martyrs, and the bodies of many of them were burnt. I have never seen such a tragedy. Ernest, Armais, Salvik, and Vagif were Armenians from Badara, they were at the head of the events."

09:01

A regular session of the court on the criminal case of Vagif Khachaturyan, accused of participation in the genocide committed on 22 December 1991 in Meshali village of Khojaly district by members of illegal Armenian armed groups, will be held on October 24.

The trial will be held under the chairmanship of Judge Zeynal Aghayev of Baku Military Court in the building of Yasamal District Court, Report informs.

Fifty-eight citizens and the executive power of Khojaly district have been recognised as victims in the case.

Khachaturyan is accused of participating in the massacre of Azerbaijanis in Meshali village of Khojaly district on 22 December 1991 as a member of Armenian military units.

Armenian citizen Vagif Cherkezovich Khachaturyan, on the international wanted list due to the genocide in Meshali, was detained in July this year at the Lachin border checkpoint.

The criminal group which he led killed 25 Azerbaijanis in the village of Meshali in the Khojaly district in December 1991, wounded 14 people and evicted 358 Azerbaijanis from their legal place of residence.

A criminal case was opened against him under articles 103 (genocide) and 107 (deportation or forced resettlement of the population), and a preventive measure in the form of remand in custody was chosen.

Article 103 ("Genocide - actions aimed at the complete or partial destruction of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group by killing members of this group, causing serious harm to their health or serious harm to their mental abilities, creating living conditions designed for the complete or partial physical destruction of members of this group, carrying out activities aimed at prevention of births within a group, forced transfer of children belonging to one group to another") - provides for punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of 14 to 20 years or life imprisonment.

Article 107 ("Deportation or forced relocation of the population, the expulsion of the population from legal places of settlement to another State or expulsion by other coercive actions, without grounds established by the norms of international law and the laws of the Republic of Azerbaijan") provides for punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of 10 to 15 years.

Both articles belong to the category of grave and especially grave crimes. Thus, according to the totality of the articles, Vagif Khachaturyan can expect a sentence of 20 years in prison or life imprisonment.