On August 30 and 31, representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross visited Alen Sargsyan, Vahe Hovsepyan and Levon Grigoryan, who were detained in Azerbaijan on charges of inciting ethnic and racial hatred and violating Azerbaijan’s national flag, Ilaha Huseynova, head of the PR department of the ICRC office in Azerbaijan, told Report.
She noted that one-on-one meetings were held with them and they were given the opportunity to contact their families.
It was earlier reported that the criminal case was initiated due to Armenian football players disrespectful actions towards the State Flag of the Republic of Azerbaijan under articles 283.2.3 (Inciting national, racial, social, or religious hatred and enmity committed by organized group) and 324 (Violation of the National Flag or the State Emblem of the Republic of Azerbaijan), the investigation was entrusted to Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Due to sustainable suspicions, it was decided to involve the citizens of the Republic of Armenia - Alen Sargsyan, born in 2001, Vahe Hovsepyan, born in 2003, and Levon Grigoryan as accused persons under the mentioned articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan. However, since their whereabouts were unknown at the time, an international arrest warrant was issued by the court.
As a result of the conducted search measures, on August 28, the mentioned individuals were detained by the military personnel of the State Border Service at the Lachin border crossing point of the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border.
Detained individuals have been provided with their defense rights, and during the interrogation, they sincerely expressed remorse for their actions and pledged not to engage in such activities in the future.