13 September 2013, 22:33
On September 27, CoA of Nagorno-Karabakh to pronounce judgment in case against students sentenced for espionage
The Court of Appeal (CoA) of Nagorno-Karabakh has considered the claim filed by advocates on the case against students Rafael Avagyan and David Barsegyan, who were sentenced to 11 and 10 years of imprisonment, respectively, for treason in the form of espionage. The decision of the CoA will be pronounced on September 27.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Rafiq Avagyan and David Barsegyan were detained in March 2013. According to the prosecutors' version, they passed on information of state importance to Samvel Azatyan, a special agent of foreign services, living in Istanbul. Both students deny their guilt. They communicated with Samvel Azatyan on the Internet and told him about Nagorno-Karabakh, believing that he was an Armenian, a representative of the charity foundation.
Advocates have demanded full recognition of innocence of their clients. They have argued that, in particular, it was not proved that the students were intentionally engaged in espionage activities and that the personality of Samvel Azatyan was not identified, like the fact whether he was an agent of a foreign secret service.
The family members of David Barsegyan are refugees from Azerbaijan and participants of the Karabakh war, and such a family could not raise a traitor, advocate Arkady Israelyan believes. He has emphasized that the actions of David Barsegyan had no elements of espionage, since all pictures of various objects that he did were available on the Internet.
The advocate has noted that accusations of treason of the two young men deteriorate the reputation of Nagorno-Karabakh as a state.
Author: Alvard Grigoryan Source: CK correspondent
