Baku court refuses to acquit Vagif Khachatryan
The Baku Court of Appeals has refused to acquit Artsakh Armenian Vagif Khachatryan convicted in Azerbaijan.
At a hearing on Monday, the elderly man insisted on his innocence and asked the judge to acquit and release him, saying he needed surgery.
However, the court upheld the guilty verdict and jail sentence given to Khachatryan, rejecting his appeal, the Azerbaijani media reported.
The 68-year-old man has been sentenced to 15 years in jail in Azerbaijan for “crimes” dating back to 1991. Khachatryan has to serve five years of his sentence in prison and the rest in a strict-regime penal colony.
He was abducted and arrested by Azerbaijani border guards at the Lachin Corridor checkpoint on 29 July while being evacuated to Armenia by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for an urgent heart surgery.
Khachatryan was charged with "genocide" and "deportation or forced exile of population" in the village of Meshali on 22 December 1991 strongly denied by him.
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