Artur Abramyan, an Armenian-origin witness, testified Monday at the court hearings continued at the Baku Military Court.
Vusal Aliyev, senior assistant to the Prosecutor General, who also represents public prosecution, said that on September 19, 1988, a criminal case was launched by Senior Assistant to the Prosecutor General of the USSR, State Counselor of Justice of the 2nd degree A.I. Nikolayev, under the relevant article of the Criminal Code of the Azerbaijan SSR, regarding the facts of mass riots in Khojaly, Shusha and Khankendi, and the investigation group of the USSR Prosecutor's Office was entrusted with conducting the preliminary investigation.
Abramyan, serving as Murad Petrosyan’s driver at the time, stated that Petrosyan had met with Robert Kocharyan at the Khankendi City Council. According to him, Kocharyan served as a right-hand man to Maksim Babayan, Chairman of the Khankendi City Council, while Henrik Pogosyan, Chairman of the “Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO)”, spearheaded the entire national Armenian movement.
He added that Vazgen Sargsyan, commander in chief of the Armenian army, had provided the arms supply from Yerevan to the Azerbaijani territories. He added that the weaponry had been sent from Armenia to Asgaran by helicopter and further distributed to other big cities in the region. The arms were then received by the heads of the Armenian armed detachments and distributed among the detachments’ members.
The trial continues for Armenian nationals accused of committing crimes against peace and humanity, including war crimes, acts of terrorism, waging and preparing an aggressive war, genocide, violations of the laws and customs of war, the forcible seizure and retention of power, and financing terrorism, among other offenses related to Armenia’s military aggression.
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