The Deputy Commander of the N Army Corps of the Ministry of Defense for Moral and Psychological Work and the Deputy Commander-Chief of Staff of the N Military Unit were sentenced to respectively 4 years, 9 months, 11 days and 4 years, 10 months, 6 days imprisonment according to the verdict of December 27, 2024 by the First Instance Court of General Jurisdiction of Syunik Region.

It should be recalled that on 29 August, 2023 the prosecutor approved the indictment against the above-mentioned persons and submitted it with the materials of the proceedings to the First Instance Court of General Jurisdiction of Syunik Region.

The criminal proceedings examined by the Investigative Committee revealed that the Deputy Commander-Chief of Staff of the N Military Unit of the Ministry of Defense was informed that on October 19, 2020, the commander of the N military unit, the deputy commander of the same military unit, the commander of the 3rd battalion of the military unit and 35 servicemen from the same battalion's personnel were surrounded and killed during combat operations in the area of ​​the Daghtumas settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh. On the same day, the Deputy Commander of Military Unit, Chief of Staff of the N military unit called the Commander of the 2nd battalion and the Deputy Commander of the 3rd battalion to the headquarters of the N military unit of the Ministry of Defense located in the village of Khndzoresk, where, together with the Deputy Commander of the N army corps for moral and psychological work, they gave an order to spread panic among the servicemen of the N military unit so that the servicemen would refuse to use weapons during the battle. The commander of the 2nd battalion and the deputy commander of the 3rd battalion, realizing the illegality of the order given, did not share such information to any of the subordinate servicemen.

On August 24, 2023, a public criminal prosecution was initiated against the of Deputy Commander for Moral and Psychological Work of N Army Corps of the Ministry of Defense and the Deputy Chief of Staff of the N Military Unit Commander according to Article 35-380, Part 2 of the Criminal Code adopted on 18.04.2003 (Willful refusal to use weapons in the battle field by a group of people with prior agreement).

The court, did not apply conditionally the punishment to the accused, setting a probationary period of 1 year on the ground of Article 84 of the Criminal Code.

After receiving the court act, the Prosecutor's Office will file an appeal regarding the punishment.

Notice:  A person charged with any crime shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty in the manner prescribed by the RA Criminal Procedure Code—by the judgment came into legal force.