Criminal case opened after discovery of mass graves in Azerbaijan's Khojavand

After the discovery of a mass grave in the Edilli village of Azerbaijan's Khojavand district, the Military Prosecutor's Office initiated a criminal case under articles 115.4, 120.2.1, 120.2.7 and 120.2.12 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Report informs, citing the Prosecutor General's Office.

The investigation established that during the First Karabakh War, the Armenian armed formations and the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia grossly violated the norms and principles of international humanitarian law, including the requirements of Article 17 of the Geneva Convention dated August 12, 1949. In 1993, on the basis of national hatred, 25 prisoners, presumably servicemen of the Azerbaijani Army, were killed and buried in mass graves in the village of Edilli, Khojavand.

In the Edilli village of the Khojavend district, on February 23-26, 2022, human remains belonging to 7 persons were found and removed from a mass grave, and then remains of another 18 persons were found in the village on September 14-30, 2022.

Samples of the bone remains have been taken and submitted for molecular genetic testing.