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Arayik Harutyunyan was charged with criminal responsibility

Comprehensive measures are being taken by the Prosecutor General’s Office and the State Security Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan for the investigation of crimes against peace and humanity, war, terrorism and other crimes committed by illegal Armenian armed groups operating in the territory of Karabakh of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

During the investigations, reasonable suspicions have arisen that Arayik Harutyunyan Vladimiri, born in the Azerbaijani city of Khankendi in 1973, participated in the conduct of an aggressive war, recruitment, training and financing of mercenaries, as well as organizing their use in military conflict and military operations, violated international humanitarian law norms during an armed conflict, and issued criminal orders during an armed conflict in the territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan as the so-called “President of the Republic of the Nagorno-Karabakh” and other positions.

At the same time, reasonable grounds  were also established that Arayik Harutyunyan have been involved in the formation and organization of the activities of armed groups, not foreseen by the legislation of the Republic of Azerbaijan, providing these groups with weapons, their components, ammunition, explosives, military equipment and military supplies as a part of a criminal association, and in organization of trainings, as well as in smuggling these groups into the country and in financing of terrorism.

As a result of investigative and operational measures, reasonable suspicions have also arisen that Arayik Harutyunyan have committed terrorist acts and numerous other crimes by continuously mining the territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan, organizing terrorist attacks that resulted in the killing of numerous civilians and causing various degrees of injuries on civilian and military infrastructure by firing ballistic and other types of missiles that targeted residential areas and civilian objects in the densely populated city of Ganja and the Barda district of the Republic of Azerbaijan located outside the front zone.

On October 28, 2020, Arayik Harutyunyan was charged as an accused person under the relevant articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan, sentenced to pre-trial detention by the court order, and put on the international wanted list.

On October 3, 2023, Arayik Harutyunyan was detained by the State Security Service in the city of Khankendi, and charged with articles 100, 116, 117, 120, 214, 214-1, 214-3, 218, 279 and other articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Currently, necessary and urgent investigative and operational measures are continuing by the State Security Service and Prosecutor General’s Office.