YEREVAN/BAKU. May 10 (Interfax) - The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has demanded the immediate release of two Azerbaijani soldiers who turned up in the Armenian territory in April 2023.
"We strongly condemn the so-called trial and judgment passed in Armenia in regard to Azerbaijani Armed Forces servicemen Akshin Gabil oglu Babirov and Huseyn Ahliman oglu Akhundov. The two went missing in the Shahbuz district of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic in April of this year and were captured by the Armenian side," the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a commentary.
According to the ministry, such a response of Yerevan to Baku's confidence building measures and the immediate return of Armenian captives, including over ten soldiers who lost their way and crossed the border, without preconditions proves that Armenia has no interest in peace and confidence in the region.
"Armenia should put an end to subversive activities of the kind, which are accompanied with flagrant violations of international humanitarian law, and immediately free the captives," the ministry said.
Baku urged the international community, respective international organizations and nongovernmental organizations to exert strong influence and pressure on Armenia for the sake of the soonest release of the Azerbaijani soldiers.
It was reported on Monday that an Azerbaijani serviceman was sentenced to over 11 years of imprisonment for trespassing the border and smuggling weapons.
"A general jurisdiction court in the Syunik region of Armenia sentenced Akshin Babirov to 11 years six months and 15 days of imprisonment. He was found guilty of trespassing the border and smuggling firearms and ammunition. Akshin Babirov pleaded guilty as charged," the Armenian Prosecutor General's Office said.
The ministry said that the criminal case against another Azerbaijani serviceman who crossed the border, Huseyn Akhundov, was ongoing. He was charged with killing a security guard of the Zangezur Copper and Molybdenum Plant.