“Comprehensive measures are being taken by the General Prosecutor'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,” said the press services of Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s Office and the State Security Service in a joint statement.
During the investigations, reasonable suspicions have arisen that Arayik Harutyunyan Vladimiri, born in the Azerbaijani city of Khankendi in 1973, has 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, violation of international humanitarian law norms during an armed conflict, and issuing 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 suspicions have also established that Arayik Harutyunyan was also involved in the formation and organization of the activities of armed groups, not provided for by the legislation of the Republic of Azerbaijan, providing these groups with weapons, their complete parts, ammunition, explosives, military equipment and military supplies as a part of a criminal association, and the organization of training on their use, as well as in sending these groups to the country through smuggling and the financing of terrorism.
As a result of investigative and operational measures, reasonable suspicions also arisen that Arayik Harutyunyan has also 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.
Arayik Harutyunyan was detained on September 28, 2023, involved 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, investigative and operational measures on the criminal case are underway by the Prosecutor General’s Office and State Security Service of Azerbaijan.
