Students abducted and illegally deprived of their freedom by Azerbaijan have been returned

On September 7, at about 17:45, the Azerbaijani side returned the students – Alen Sargsyan, Vahe Hovsepyan and Levon Grigoryan – who were abducted and illegally deprived of their freedom, while being transported from Artsakh to Armenia accompanied by the Russian peacekeeping contingent.
The transfer of the boys to the Armenian side took place with the participation of the Russian peacekeepers near the Hakari bridge. They have been transported to the Republic of Armenia.
The Office of the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh will conduct a study on the details of Alen Sargsyan, Vahe Hovsepyan and Levon Grigoryan’s abduction, the attitude towards them during their arbitrary and illegal imprisonment by Azerbaijan and the state of their health.
The abduction and arbitrary imprisonment of civilians, in particular Vagif Khachatryan, Rashid Beglaryan, Alen Sargsyan, Vahe Hovsepyan and Levon Grigoryan, as well as Azerbaijan's request for false and fabricated criminal cases indicate that the illegal Azerbaijani checkpoint located at the Hakari Bridge is a direct and irrefutable threat to the physical existence and protection of the fundamental rights of the civilian population of Artsakh.
The so-called “checkpoint” has turned into a tool for servicing Azerbaijani criminal arbitrariness, through which civilians are being arbitrarily abducted and deprived of their freedom by Azerbaijanis, while 120,000 people are held under the blockade, deprived of humanitarian access and the possibility of protection of their fundamental human rights.