Pro-Azeri Syrian mercenaries face international terrorism,murder charges in Armenia

 15:56,

YEREVAN, APRIL 12, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian authorities have completed the investigation into the criminal case involving the two captured Syrian citizens who were fighting for the Azerbaijani Armed Forces as mercenaries in the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh war. 

The Committee of Investigations said that the investigation gathered evidence substantiating that Muhrab Muhammad al-Shkher and Yusef Alabet al-Hajji were fighting for the Azerbaijani military as foreign mercenaries in the war of aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan on September 27, 2020. The actions of the mercenaries were aimed at killing civilians in Armenia and Artsakh, with the purpose of terrorizing the peaceful population and destabilizing the domestic situation of Armenia and Artsakh.

Yusuf Alabet al-Hajji is the Syrian terrorist who had testified that they ‘were ordered to slaughter every Armenian in the village’.

Muhrab Muhammad al-Shkher, also a Syrian citizen, had testified that he, along with many others, were recruited by the leader of the Suleyman Shah Brigade in Syria and taken to Azerbaijan via Turkey.

Criminal charges of Terrorism Activity Committed by an Organized Group, International Terrorism, Gross Violation of International Humanitarian Law During Armed Conflicts (murder of non-combatants, civilians) and Mercenarism were pressed against the two arrested Syrian mercenaries. 

The indictment has been sent to the supervising prosecutor with a motion on forwarding it to court.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan