Two Armenian Soldiers and One Civilian Arrested for Spying for Azerbaijan

YEREVAN — Two Armenian soldiers and one civilian have been arrested on charges of spying for Azerbaijan through online social networks, the National Security Service (NSS) reported on Tuesday.

One of the suspects was identified as Mane Movsisian, a 31-year-old woman serving at an Armenian army unit stationed near the southeastern town of Kapan. She was taken into custody on Saturday, according to the NSS.

In a written statement, the security agency said it has “irrefutable facts” proving that Movsisian communicated through Facebook and other networks with an unnamed Azerbaijani intelligence officer based in Turkey using “S. Dr”, “Seryan Dervisyan” and “Tigran Dervisyan” accounts in the Odnoklassniki, mail.ru agent and Facebook online social networking sites. It claimed that she passed on to him classified “information of military nature about Armenia.” No further details were reported.

The NSS also said that its sister agency in Nagorno-Karabakh has arrested two local residents, one of them a soldier, “for committing a similar crime.” It said they both are currently standing trial in a Karabakh court.

According to the NSS statement, the unidentified Karabakh Armenians were “recruited” by the same Azerbaijani agent who had false Armenian user names.

The statement did not specify whether the arrested suspects pleaded guilty to the accusations.