YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — Two more Armenian prisoners of war held by Azerbaijan received long prison sentences over the weekend in trials strongly condemned by Armenia.
A court in Baku sentenced Ishkhan Sargsyan and Vladimir Rafaelyan to 19 and 18 years in prison respectively on a string of charges, including terrorism and illegal entry into Azerbaijan.
They were among six servicemen captured last May while fortifying an Armenian army post on the border with Azerbaijan. The incident occurred days after Azerbaijani forces advanced a few kilometers into Armenian territory at several sections of the long border.
Baku freed four of those soldiers in June but pressed charges against Sargsyan and Rafaelyan.
Yerevan rejects the charges as illegal and baseless, saying that the soldiers were taken prisoner on the Armenian side of the frontier in Armenia’s Gegharkunik province.
A spokesperson for the Armenian Office representative to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Armenian Service on March 7 that it will file more appeals with the Strasbourg-based tribunal in connection with the sentencing of the soldiers.
