Two Azerbaijanis convicted in show trial in occupied Karabakh

In a verdict condemned by Azerbaijan’s government, Dilgam Askerov and Shahbaz Quliyev were convicted of illegal border crossing and arms possession, espionage and kidnapping. Askerov, who was jailed for life, was also found guilty of killing Smbat Tsakanian, a 17-year-old Armenian settler in Azerbaijan's occupied Kelbajar district.

Quliyev and Askerov were separately captured by Karabakh Armenian security forces in July after crossing into Kelbajar together with another Azerbaijani, Hasan Hasanov. Hasanov was gunned down several days later.

The shootings were reported four days before Tsakanian was found dead. The Karabakh authorities believe that he was taken hostage and killed by the Azerbaijani "saboteurs.”

Quliyev, 46, and Askerov, 54, pleaded not guilty to the murder charge when they went on trial in Stepanakert in October. Each of them claimed to have had no part in the boy’s killing which the prosecution says was committed with an assault rifle confiscated from Askerov.

The Azerbaijani government has repeatedly denounced the trial as illegal and demanded the release of both men. It says that that they had a legitimate right to visit what is an internationally recognized part of Azerbaijan that has been under Armenian occupation since 1993.

The Foreign Ministry in Baku stood by this position in its official reaction to the court verdict voiced later on Monday. "The ‘trial’ held in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan has no legal force,” Hikmet Hajiyev, a ministry spokesman, said, according to the APA news agency. Hajiyev said Baku will continue to press the international community to secure the release of the two "hostages.”

The authorities in Stepanakert have rejected such claims before. They say that the arrested Azerbaijanis cannot be treated like prisoners of war because their "brutal and inhuman” actions targeted a civilian.