Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited the three students-football players from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) who are being held in Azerbaijan. This was reported by Zara Amatuni, Communication and Prevention Program Manager of the ICRC Armenia office,
“The three young men detained on August 28 were visited by representatives of our organization in Baku on August 30 and 31,” Amatuni said, adding that they were given the opportunity to contact their relatives.
The Azerbaijani side on Monday abducted Alen Sargsyan, 22, while traveling from Artsakh to Armenia, and accompanied by Russian peacekeepers. Later it became known that two other young men, Vahe Hovsepyan and Levon Grigoryan, also had not crossed the illegal Azerbaijani checkpoint on the Lachin corridor, and it was not possible to establish contact with them. These three young men are university students, and they were coming to Armenia to study.
The Azerbaijani side stated that that these young men were detained “for disrespecting the flag of Azerbaijan in the past.”
They were charged under two counts.
