Azerbaijani serviceman Nasimi Rahim Oghlu Musayev has been remanded in custody for two months, as prosecutors added illegal border crossing and firearms smuggling to the charges announced against him a day earlier.
Musayev is accused of entering a home in Shaki, Syunik, and opening fire on an Armenian woman in front of her children. The woman was seriously wounded, while two of her children also sustained injuries during the incident.
Armenia’s National Security Service had been alerted days earlier. On September 29, Azerbaijan’s State Security Service informed the NSS that a serviceman had left his military unit under unknown circumstances and that it could not be ruled out that he had illegally crossed into Armenia. Search operations were subsequently launched.
Despite that, when Armenia’s Prosecutor General’s Office publicly announced the case on October 1, Musayev was charged with causing grievous bodily harm with a weapon, illegal possession and carrying of a firearm, and unlawfully entering a residence. Illegal border crossing was not among the charges announced.
Following widespread public criticism, prosecutors announced on October 2 that Musayev was also being prosecuted for illegally crossing Armenia’s state border and firearms smuggling. Those charges were merged into the same criminal case.
A court has since ordered Musayev held in custody for two months.
