Trial for Armenian man accused of spying for neighboring Azerbaijan
continues
AP Worldstream; Jun 10, 2005
The trial of an Armenian man accused of spying for Azerbaijan entered
its second day Friday, with witnesses describing how he took
photographs of important buildings in Yerevan.
Prosecutors say Andrei Maziyev, 44, allegedly took photographs of
Yerevan’s airport, foreign embassies and hotels in Armenia and
reported on the political and economic situation in the disputed
enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan allegedly paid him US$2,500
(Aâ=82¬2,060), prosecutors said.
Maziyev, who was arrested in January, pleaded guilty to espionage on
Thursday. He could get up to life in prison.
Under Armenian law, trials can continue following a guilty plea.
Azerbaijan has made no comment on the trial.
Relations between the two former Soviet republics are tense, due to
the unresolved conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave located
within Azerbaijan’s borders that saw a six-year war in which ethnic
Armenian troops drove Azerbaijan forces out.
Despite a 1994 cease-fire, a political solution remains elusive and
fighting breaks out sporadically in the no man’s land around the
enclave. More than 1 million people were left homeless and 30,000
killed as a result of the war.
Last fall, a Yerevan court sentenced four Armenians to prison
sentences ranging from six to 14 years after convicting them of
espionage.