BAKU/YEREVAN. Aug 17 (Interfax) - Azerbaijan has opened a criminal case on the violation of the state border by an Armenian reconnaissance and sabotage group on Wednesday, the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General's Office said.
The criminal case was initiated on counts of smuggling firearms and ammunition by a group of persons by prior conspiracy, terrorism with use of firearms by a group of persons by prior conspiracy, illegal acquisition, transportation, possession of firearms by a group of persons by prior conspiracy, inciting ethnic, racial, social or religious hatred and enmity with use of violence or with the threat to use it, and illegal crossing of the Azerbaijani state border, which was perpetrated by a group of persons by prior conspiracy or by an organized group with the use of violence or with the threat to use it, it said.
The Prosecutor General's Office Investigative Department was tasked with the preliminary investigation, it said.
The Armenian Defense Ministry in turn published a video in which, according to the ministry, "a group of troops of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces can be seen approaching reserve serviceman G. V., who was still on the Azerbaijani side under unclear circumstances, talking to him, then detaining him and taking him away in a car to an unknown destination."
"This video reveals the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry's lie that allegedly in the eastern section of the border the Armenian Armed Forces made a subversive infiltration attempt, which was suppressed with 'support of military firepower,'" the Armenian Defense Ministry said in a statement published on its website on Wednesday.
The video footage released by the Armenian Defense Ministry "has nothing to do with the incident," the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said. "The Armenian saboteur detained by Azerbaijani army units was immediately evacuated in a UAZ-390945 vehicle to a nearby military medical facility by our servicemen," Azerbaijani Defense Ministry spokesman Anar Eivazov said.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said that an attempt of an Armenian Armed Forces' sabotage and reconnaissance group to infiltrate Azerbaijani territory was thwarted. A member of the sabotage and reconnaissance group was detained, he was injured, the ministry said.