Azerbaijan: Local authorities demolishhouse and arrest brother of saboteur DilgamaAskerovconvicted in NKR

Sahib Askerov, the brother of DilgamaAskerov, an Azerbaijani saboteur, one of the members of sabotage and reconnaissance group, which last year illegally crossed the state border of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in Karvachar, was arrested. The information about his arrest was received from his son,MovludAskerov, according Minval.az.

He informed that his father had been arrestedinnocent, and the building of a house on his own land was the cause for his arrest. "We had built a house on an area, and we have all the documents conforming our ownership. It was a two-room house with a kitchen and a bathroom. Then the Absheron districtexecutive power’s representative of Mehdiabadsettlementarrived, as well as the chairman of the municipality and more than 50 police officers. They demolished our house. They insulted my father, and then the police took him away."
According to MovludAskerov, the representative of the local executive power and thechairman of the municipality said that they had to pay a very large legal fee, otherwise the house would be demolished. Theyconditioned the house demolition bya legal fee of 9,200 manat (about $ 8,800)Askerovswere supposed to pay in order to be able to proceed with the construction. "My father asked to show him a law about it. He asked them on which basis they required that sum. We have not appealedto the higher authoritieson this subject yet. But we're going to. Let's see who bosses in the Absheron region. What the head of Absheron district and the representative of local executive power do isarbitrariness," MovludAskerov said.

He also added that when he began to film the demolition of the house, the police broke his phone. Further, MevlutAskerov said that during the demolition of the house one of the men slipped and fell down, still the police made a report noting that his father had hit him. "Then the policemenswore at my father. I was filming the demolition of our house with phone, the policeman asked me why I was doing that. He said I have no right to film. I replied that it were they who had no right to demolish our houseas there was no court decision. I asked on what grounds they demolished the house, which had documents. Then they broke my phone. I have another record filmed by my wife. She filmed everything that happened," MovludAskerov said.

In September 2015, the son of Azerbaijani subversive DilgamaAskerov, KyurdogluAskerov, emigrated to Russia. According to the relatives, Askerovwas forced to leave Azerbaijan because of unemployment and despair.

According to the NKR Police, Azerbaijanicitizens ShahbazGuliev (born in 1968), DilgamAskerov (born in 1960) and a person whose identity has not been verified, illegally crossed the NKR state border with weapons and ammunition with them and penetrated into Shahumyan region, NKR on June 29, 2014 with the purpose of carrying out intelligence activities. These persons were gathering information and carrying out espionage activitieson a special assignment. Moreover, on July 4, they kidnaped

SmbatMexakovichTsakanyan, an underage citizen of the NKR, using weapons.His body was found on July 15 with gunshot wounds in the forest belt of the communities Karvachar and Manashid,Shahumyan region. In addition, motivated by ethnic hatred, the person whose identity has not been verified, murdered a Yerevan resident,Sargis S. Abrahamyan (born in 1971) using firearms on the 32nd kilometer of Vardenis-Karvacharroad in the evening of 11 July. Further, he wounded KarineDavtyanArshavirovna, a resident of Dzoraghbyur village of Kotayk region. During the operation of his detention, he rendered armed resistance and was neutralized. ShahbazGuliyev and DilhamAskerovwere convicted in the NKR following their detention.