Repatriated Azeri soldier charged with high treason
BAKU – An Azerbaijani soldier who was released from Armenian captivity last month faces charges of high treason, a rights defender has said.
Elchin Behbudov, chairman of the Azerbaijan Committee Against Torture, said he met with junior sergeant Anar Hajiyev in a National Security Ministry pre-trial detention facility on Wednesday. According to him, Hajiyev has no complaints about his conditions of detention.
"Hajiyev has pled guilty and regrets what he has done," Behbudov said, adding that he has been provided with a defense lawyer.
Hajiyev, 20, was captured by Armenian armed forces in the frontline Fuzuli region in May 2009. He was handed over to Azerbaijan’s authorities on March 17, 2011.
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a brutal war that ended with the signing of a fragile cease-fire in 1994. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory has been occupied by Armenian armed forces since then. Peace talks brokered by US, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.
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