ISIS Militants Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison

Today Baku Court of Grave Crimes completed the trial of two citizens accused of involvement in the armed conflict in Syria on the side of ISIS, Telman Bakirov and Mubariz Tahirov. They were arrested by the National Security Ministry.

According to the investigation, Bakirov and Tahirov in 2014-2015 participated in illegal armed formations on the territory of Iraq and Syria, including as part of the terrorist organization ISIS.

In the trial, Bakirov said that he confessed under duress. According to him, he did not go to Syria, and was only in Turkey, where he had gone to work and came back.

Tahirov said that was heading to Syria and got to the Turkish city of Gaziantep. Then I decided to come back, but was held captive for a while.

The trial was also attended by relatives of Mahmoud Rasulov - one more defendant in the case.

According to them, Tahirov persuaded Rasulov to go with him to Syria. According to the relatives, Rasulov did not even perform namaz before meeting Tahirov.

On December 31, 2014 Rasulov disappeared and his family demanded Tahirov report his whereabouts. Tahirov said Rasulov went to Syria voluntarily, and he had no information about him.

The prosecutor in his final speech offered to sentence both defendants to 15 years in prison.

The defendants were defended by government lawyers who made very brief concluding remarks, asking the court to acquit the accused.

The court announced the verdict after a meeting. Each of the defendants received 14 years in prison. -06C--