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"At a time when the Armenian Human Rights Defender is trying to raise concerns at international non-governmental organisations about tortures and mistreatment of Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan, Nikol Pashinyan suggests a dilemma for prisoners to either be tortured at Baku prisoners or imprisoned in Armenians jails upon return," lawmaker from 'With Honour' faction Anna Mkrtchyan told a press conference on Monday.

Mkrtchyan's remarks came amid criminal charges by the Investigative Committee brought against some of the Armenian captives returned from Azerbaijan. The servicemen are charged with violation of combat duty regulations during war or military actions, which is punishable by imprisonment for the term of 4 to 10 years under Armenia's Criminal Code provisions.

Earlier, Nikol Pashinyan suggested the investigative bodies to investigate every case of captivity to find out circumstance of capture and determine whether there are elements of crime in their actions. 

In Mkrtchyan's assessment, the charges are brought against servicemen to prevent possible complaint. 

"The formula proposed by Pashinyan is the following: If you remind me of yourself, the law enforcement will remind you about prosecution. If you hope to make my instruction to retreat without shooting according to oral agreement a topic of investigation, you will become criminals and subjects for criminal prosecution, " Mkrtchyan said, adding, Alen Simonyan's recent scandalous remarks about the prisoners is completely in line with this logic of the authorities.