U.S. Assistant Secretary Victoria Nuland's calls to free the Azerbaijani raiders convicted in Karabakh are inadmissible to Stepanakert. David Babayan, Spokesperson for the NKR President said the Artsakh Republic leadership had repeatedly declared that Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilham Askerov, and the third, liquidated raider Hasan Hasanov, committed terrorist acts in the territory of the Nagorny Karabakh Republic (NKR). The faced a transparent trial with participation of Mass Media and public organizations.
"Their guilt was proved during the trial and they confessed and addressed a petition for commutation to NKR President Bako Sahakyan. Stepanakert has already displayed good will and 'human gesture' by avoiding reprisal against the raiders and launching an open and transparent trial like any civilized country would do," Babayan said.
In this light, Babayan said Nuland's calls were, at least, strange, given that she calls the raiders as criminals and urges a 'human gesture' for them. "It is interesting how Washington would respond if any organization asked it to free the Boston terrorists. Such category of criminals cannot be freed in such a 'human' way, muss less the criminals of a country that gives birth to various 'safarovs' killing asleep Armenian officers," the spokesperson said.
He believes that the issue of raiders is not Washington's problem. Simply, the United States rose to Baku's bait. Baku tries to shift the responsibility for its actions on to Armenia.
To recall, the Stepanakert General Court sentenced Askerov and Gulyev to life imprisonment and 20 years in prison for illegal crossing of the state border and committing sabotage attacks and vicious murders, respectively.