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Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to UN submits one more letter to UN Secretary-General concerning results of investigation of killing of 9 years old Fariz Badalov

28 April 2011 09:12 (UTC +04:00)

â€œAs I informed you in my letters before as a result of the ceasefire violation by the armed forces of Armenia, Fariz Badalov, a nine-year-old resident of the village of Orta Garvand of the Agdam district of Azerbaijan, was shot dead by an Armenian sniperâ€, the Ambassador mentions.

He added that the results of the crime irrefutably prove the responsibility of the armed forces of the Republic of Armenia for the intentional killing of an Azerbaijani child.

Mr. Mehdiyev also transmitted the information of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan regarding the investigation of this crime.

â€œOn 8 March 2011 at about 1600 hours local time, Armenian armed forces opened fire from positions in the occupied village of Shykhlar in the Agdam district of the Azerbaijanâ€, says the letter. â€œAs a result of this, Fariz Badalov, born 2002, who at the time was playing with other children in the yard of his home, received a bullet wound to the head and died on the way to hospital. The next day, the Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Agdam district instituted criminal proceedings for the commission of a crime under article 120.1 of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijanâ€.

According to the letter, an investigation established that the house where Badalov lived is in the south-western part of the village of Orta Garvand and is the house closest to the area of the front through which runs the line of contact with the Armenian armed forces: â€œThe distance between the house and the Armenian armed forcesâ€™ positions is about 1,000-1,200 metres. Since the rear part of the house abuts on to a large area of fields, the distance from the Armenian armed forcesâ€™ positions can be clearly seen. Furthermore, there are no natural or artificial obstacles that might limit visibility. The observation log of the command post of the military unit of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan deployed in the Agdam district recorded that on 8 March 2011, firing from the Armenian armed forcesâ€™ positions located on the side facing the command post occurred three times at 1530 hours and once from a sniperâ€™s rifle at 1620 hours. This is confirmed by the testimony of witnesses questioned in the prosecution of the caseâ€.

The letter also indicates that, according to the conclusions of the forensic medical examination performed for the prosecution, wounds were found on Badalovâ€™s body in the areas of the left temple and the right side of the crown, together with fragments of bone from the skull and puncturing and destruction of the brain tissue.

â€œThe description was a single wound resulting from the action of a bullet fired from a firearm. The cause of Badalovâ€™s death was the fragmenting of the skull bone and the puncturing and destruction of the brain tissue as a result of the wound from the firearm. An examination of the woundâ€™s entry and exit openings confirmed that the shot had been from a long distance. According to the conclusions of the forensic examination and ballistic report for the prosecution, the shot was fired from a long distance from a rifled firearm. It appears that Badalovâ€™s wound was the result of the impact of a 7.62 mm cartridge that contained copper. In the course of the examination it was established that the injuries that caused Badalovâ€™s death are typical in cases involving shots of this kind from snipersâ€™ weaponsâ€.