Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan today reported that Azerbaijan has released four Armenian captives.

Pashinyan, in a FB post, writes the four have been transferred to Armenia and are on their way to Yerevan.

1 - Viken Euljekjian, a dual citizen of Armenia and Lebanon, was captured by Azerbaijani forces near Shushi on November 10, 2020, the day after a ceasefire agreement ended the Second Karabakh War. He was a civilian attempting to retrieve personal belongings and was not a combatant.

In June 2021, a Baku military court sentenced him to wenty years in prison for "mercenary activity," "terrorism," and "illegally crossing the Azerbaijani state border".  

2 – Vagif Khachatryan was detained by Azerbaijani police in July 2023 while being transported from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia for medical treatment. On November 27, 2023, Baku’s military court sentenced Khachatryan to fifteen years in prison on charges of being a member of an illegal armed group that committed ethnic cleansing in Karabakh’s Khojaly region in December 1991.

3 & 4 - Gevorg Sujyan and David Davtyan were apprehended on November 11, 2020, following the ceasefire, as they were traveling toward Shushi. Azerbaijani authorities accused them of several crimes, including illegal possession of weapons and espionage.