SOLDIER HELD CAPTIVE IN YEREVAN WANTS TO GO TO THIRD COUNTRY – AZERI WEBSITE

Day.az website, Baku
8 Feb 07

Armenia has submitted to representatives of the International Committee
of the Red Cross [ICRC] an appeal by Azerbaijani serviceman Samir
Mammadov on handing him over to a third country, Day.az has learnt
from informed sources.

The Azerbaijani POW said that he wanted to be handed over to the
USA or to a European country. The source said that the Azerbaijani
Defence Ministry is trying to influence Samir Mammadov through his
parents into changing the decision. A letter in which the parents
asked him to return to Azerbaijan was already submitted to the ICRC.

The source said that Armenians had negatively influenced the young
man. They intimidated him that he would be arrested on his return to
Azerbaijan, like it happened with another Azerbaijani war prisoner
released from Armenian captivity.

Azerbaijani serviceman Samir Mammadov was taken captive back on 23
December 2006. The junior sergeant served in one of the border units
in Qazax District. He was taken captive on the neutral territory, 15
km away from his military unit, on the border of Azerbaijan’s Qazax
District and Armenia’s Ijevan. He had no weapons or ammunition on him.

It is also known that Samir Mammadov is being held in Yerevan all
this time.