The main perpetrator of Meshali massacre was Samvel Babayan (former so-called "defense minister" of Armenian separatists in Azerbaijan's Karabakh), the massacre's witness Azay Karimov said at the court session on the criminal case of Vagif Khachatryan, accused of committing genocide in Meshali village (Azerbaijan’s Khojaly district) in the early 1990s, AzVision.az reports.

He emphasized that Khachatryan and the rest of the participants in the Meshali massacre were only carrying out orders.

“Babayan spent nine months in Shusha prison, after which he was released without trial. Now he makes statements for the press in Armenia, like Khachatryan’s friends, whom I know. They were from our village," the witness pointed out.

The court session is held in the administrative building of the Baku city Yasamal District Court under the chairmanship of Zeynal Aghayev, Chairman of the Baku Military Court. The rapporteur on the criminal case is Judge Jamal Ramazanov.

It is expected that today the judicial investigation of the criminal case will be completed, and the prosecutor will demand punishment for the accused.

Armenian citizen Vagif Khachatryan, who is on the international wanted list in connection with the Meshali massacre, was detained at the Lachin border checkpoint in July this year.

In December 1991, the criminal group, which included Khachatryan, killed 25 Azerbaijanis, wounded 14 people, and expelled 358 Azerbaijanis from their legal place of residence in Meshali village.

In connection with the emergence of sufficient grounded suspicions, a decision was made to bring Khachatryan as an accused under Articles 103 (genocide) and 107 (deportation or forced resettlement of the population) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

A measure of restraint in the form of detention was chosen against him.

About 59 people were recognized as victims in the criminal case.

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