Azernews.Az

Iran has issued a protest to Azerbaijan over an incident on the two countries’ shared border in which a trespasser was fatally wounded by Azerbaijani border guards, according to the Iranian state TV channel’s website.

Azerbaijani ambassador in Tehran Javanshir Akhundov was summoned to Iran’s foreign ministry and handed the protest note on Friday. Tehran claimed that the border guards’ actions contradicted international law, bilateral agreements and good neighborliness ties and demanded that the Azerbaijani government punish those responsible for the incident.

During Wednesday’s incident, which occurred in Azerbaijan’s borderline Bilasuvar region, the trespasser in a military uniform tried to illegally cross into the country from Iran. He refused to stop despite warning shots and attacked the border guards, prompting them to use firearms, according to Azerbaijan’s State Border Service. The man was wounded and died later in a hospital. It was later established that he was a soldier of the Iranian border troops. His dead body was handed over to the Iranian side on Thursday.

Iranian news agency ISNA reported that representatives of the Azerbaijani and Iranian border services are expected to meet at the site of the incident to jointly investigate it, said Sayyid Mujtaba Musavi, an official of the Iranian border police.

"The unarmed soldier of the Iranian border police from the city of Khorramabad, aged 18, entered Azerbaijani territory by mistake and died as a result of Azerbaijani border guards’ opening fire," Musavi said.

The Iranian border troops’ command is expected to send its representative to Baku to investigate the incident.