Azerbaijani military Guseinzade released from captivity in NKR

Elnur Guseinzade, an Azerbaijani prisoner of war, has served his two-year sentence and asked to send him not to Azerbaijan, but to a third country, the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) has reported.

According to the GPO, Guseinzade was released on February 2.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that NKR's authorities found Azerbaijan's proposal to exchange prisoners unacceptable, but expressed readiness to release one of the three Azerbaijani prisoners ahead of schedule.

On November 17-19, 2018, residents of Armenia three times held protest actions, demanding to return Karen Gazaryan, a captive resident of the village of Berdavan, Tavush District, home. In Azerbaijan, Gazaryan was accused of attempting to commit a terror act.

According to Karabakh law enforcers, on February 1, 2017, Elnur Guseinzade illegally crossed the NKR's border. Once getting into the trench of a combat position of the NKR's Defence Army, he was detained.

The Red Cross mission visited Guseinzade in custody to see his conditions and enable him to contact his relatives, Pierre-Emmanuelle Ducruhe, the head of the ICRC in Stepanakert, has noted.

According to official data, three Armenian citizens are in captivity in Azerbaijan: Arsen Bagdasaryan, Zaven Karapetyan and Karen Gazaryan. Two Azerbaijani citizens remain in captivity in the NKR: Shakhbaz Guliev and Dilkham Askerov, detained in 2014. The NKR's court sentenced Guliev and Askerov to 22 years and life imprisonment, respectively, on charges of a number of crimes.