More than 100 persons were subjected to physical pressure in "Terter case" - military prosecutor

Baku/01.11.21/Turan: More than 100 persons were subjected to different forms of physical pressures in the so-called "Terter case". This was stated by Deputy Prosecutor General, Military Prosecutor of Azerbaijan Khanlar Veliyev to journalists on November 1, commenting on the allegations of tortures against the defendants during the investigation of the "Terter case".

According to him, some people were prosecuted during the investigation, but later their innocence was revealed.

"Therefore, the criminal case against these persons was terminated. I mean to say that the Military Prosecutor's Office tried to be objective. I believe that it succeeded," said Veliyev.

At the same time, he pointed out that the criminal case was initiated due to the facts of betrayal in the army.

"There were such cases before, and it was fought against these facts, the perpetrators were brought to justice. Otherwise, if our army had not been cleared from traitors, we could not have won the victory. During the Second World War, even an entire division in the Soviet army committed treason," said the military prosecutor.

According to Veliyev, facts of physical pressures and very serious force measures were taken over the suspects in the Terter case even before the case was referred to the military prosecutor's office.

According to Veliyev, the tortures against the military that led to the death of one person, were carried out in the period he mentioned.

Veliyev stated that a large team of Defense Ministry doctors was engaged to identify health needs of the suspects.

Some were hospitalized at the central military hospital because they were subjected to severe physical pressures.

Many of them had literally their lives, Veliyev noted.

As a result, 16 people from various positions were prosecuted and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.

Higher courts upheld these verdicts, Veliyev said.

*On May 7, 2017, Azerbaijan's General Prosecutor's Office, State Security Service, Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry reported on detaining a group of servicemen and civilians for espionage in favor of Armenian special services.

The prosecutor's office opened a criminal case under Article 274 (high treason) of the Criminal Code.  The detainees were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. However, it soon became known that during the investigation at least 8 suspects were killed as a result of tortures. Four of the murdered were later acquitted posthumously while the investigators who fabricated charges against them received up to seven years of imprisonment.-06D-