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An incident occurred during the trial of the Azerbaijani mercenaries who had fought for terrorist organizations in Syria. The defendants refused the lawyers provided by the state declaring that they did not recognize the laws of Azerbaijan and that only Sharia court could judge them, which, as they said, would prove their innocence, Azerbaijani media outlet Haqqin.az reports.

The defendants refused to testify and said they would keep silent during the whole court process. The next hearing is appointed on April 9, the article reads.

According to the article, the trial of Tural Hasanov, Elvin Aliyev, Farid Muradov, Namiq Mammadov, Tariel Mustafayev and Ruslan Mustafayev is chaired by judge of Baku court of grave crimes, Anvar Seidov.

“The investigation revealed that those accused of joining the terrorist group ISIS have participated in the battles in Syria against Bashar Assad’s troops. Each of them faces accusations under articles 12.1, 28, 123, 214.2, 228.1 of Criminal Code of Azerbaijan,” the article reads.

Note that Azerbaijani Salafis or Wahhabis are fighting in the ranks of various terrorist groupings that operate in Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to the Azerbaijani news agency Vesti.az, the total number of Azerbaijani terrorists in these countries equals 300. Whereas according to FaktHeber Azerbaijani portal, over the past three years only in Syria almost 200 Azerbaijani terrorists were killed.

The relationship between international terrorist groups and Azerbaijan originated in the early 1990s. Then, the Azerbaijani army, having failed in the aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), retreated with losses. Trying to save the situation, the Azerbaijani leadership, headed by Heydar Aliyev, attracted to the war against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh international terrorists and members of radical groups from Afghanistan (groupings of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar), Turkey ("Grey Wolves", etc.), Chechnya (groupings Basayev and Raduyev etc.) and some other regions.

Despite the involvement of thousands of foreign mercenaries and terrorists in the Azerbaijani army during the war, the Azerbaijani aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh Republic failed, and the Baku authorities were forced to sign an armistice with the NKR and Armenia. However, international terrorists found ties in Azerbaijan, and used them in the future. Recruitment was conducted among Azerbaijanis, who then were sent to Afghanistan and the North Caucasus, where participated in the battles against the forces of the international coalition and Russian organizations. In recent years, the citizens of Azerbaijan are actively involved in terrorist and extremist activities in Russia, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.