The next trial was held on the appeal against the verdict on Vagif Khachatryan Cherkezovich, who was accused of committing genocide in Meshali village of Azerbaijan's Khojaly district as part of illegal Armenian armed groups, Ednews reports.

In the process presided over by judge Hasan Ahmadov at the Baku Court of Appeals, a desicion was made.

The appeal was denied, and the decision of the first instance court was kept unchanged.

Note that by the verdict of Baku Military Court, Vagif Khachatryan was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Note that, Khachatryan Vagif Cherkezovich, an Armenian citizen, who is internationally wanted in connection with the Meshali genocide, was detained at the Lachin border checkpoint in July, 2023.

The criminal gang he is a member of killed 25 Azerbaijanis, injured 14 people, and displaced 358 Azerbaijanis from their legal place of residence in Meshali village of Khojaly district, in December.

He was charged with articles 103 (Genocide - killing members of any national, ethnic, racial or religious group with the aim of destroying it in whole or in part as a group, seriously harming the health of group members or seriously harming their mental capacity) and 107 (Deportation or forced relocation of the population - evicting the population from their legal locations to other countries or displacing them with other forced actions) of the Criminal Code, and a pretrial detention measure was chosen.

59 people were recognized as victims in the case.