Another group of persons accused of committing torture in the "Terter case" has been convicted.

Baku/28.12.23/Turan: The judicial staff, chaired by the judge of the Baku Military Court, Zeynal Aghayev, today announced the verdict of a group of defendants accused of torturing former defendants in the "Terter case".

The court sentenced the former chief of staff of the corps, Major General Bekir Orujev, to 9.5 years in prison.

Ulvi Rashidov and Ziya Kazimov received the same sentence, Intigam Mammadov and Rahib Mammadov were sentenced to 6.5 years in prison.

Rashidov and Kazimov were at large during the investigation and were arrested in the courtroom.

The above-mentioned persons were charged under Articles

126.3 (intentional infliction of serious damage to the victim's health, resulting in his death due to carelessness) 145.3 (unlawful deprivation of liberty), 293.3 (use of torture or other forms of inhuman or degrading treatment), 341.2.2 (abuse of official authority) and other articles of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan.

Earlier, 4 more former military men were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 5.5 to 9.5 years in prison on similar charges.

* In May-July 2017, at least 450 people, military and civilian, were detained and subjected to inhuman treatment and torture in military units stationed in Tertersky and a number of other districts.

10 soldiers were tortured to death as a result of torture. Most of the detainees were brought under Article 234.1 (illegal drug trafficking), some - under Article 228.1 (illegal arms trafficking) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan and received short prison sentences.

About 30 people were sentenced to long prison terms on charges of "treason".

After making the facts of torture public, the Prosecutor General's Office updated the investigation in 2021. As a result, at the end of last year, 20 people convicted of "treason" were acquitted.  16 people were also acquitted, among those convicted not for treason, but under other articles of the Criminal Code.  Another 13 people were previously acquitted by the decision of the military prosecutor's office in 2018.

However, 10 defendants in the "Terter case" still remain in prisons and their relatives and human rights activists are seeking a review of the cases and the release of the convicts.

Independent experts believe that the mass arrests of military and civilians on charges of "treason" and in particular "service to Armenians" were initiated by some high-ranking generals to justify their failure to perform combat missions during the April escalation in Karabakh in 2016

Victims of the "Terrorist case" believe that not all generals responsible for repression, brought to justice.  -16d06-