Armenian court sentences Azeri spy ring – web site
Iravunk web site, Yerevan
30 Jul 04
Text of A. Minasyan report by Armenian newspaper Iravunk web site on
30 July headlined “What ‘Argo’, ‘Lilo’, ‘Tokio’ and ‘Dzhoni’ were
doing in Armenia”
On Monday, 19 July, the court of appeal of the Republic of Armenia
imposed a sentence on a group of individuals who were accused of
spying, leaving unchanged the decision of the first-instance courts of
the communities of Tsentr and Nor-Marash of the city of Yerevan. The
court hearings have been held at these courts since 2003. The
first-instance court, headed by chairwoman Gayane Karakhanyan, imposed
a sentence on the group of individuals who were involved in spying
against Armenia, according to which the head of the group, Nina
Shilina, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, member of the group
Edgar Filkov – to 13 years in prison, Ivetta Filkova and Aleksandr
Gasparyan – to 10 years, and Artur Oganesov – to one year and a half.
According to the bill of indictment, Nina Shilina, born in 1949 in the
village of Ola in Magadan Region of the Russian Federation, moved to
the town of Dzhermuk in the Republic of Armenia for permanent
residence on 12 May 1988. In February 1993, she was recruited by the
staffers of the Azerbaijani Interior Ministry department for the fight
against Armenian terrorism. After agreeing to cooperate with them, she
was instructed to carry out sabotage and intelligence activities in
Armenia.
In 1993, she was instructed by Alakbar Ismailov to carry out an act of
sabotage together with a person named Rafik, who spoke fluent
Armenian, in the Erebuni hotel in Yerevan. In May, she travelled from
Baku to Tbilisi and thence to Yerevan, carrying two factory-sealed
cans of the Turkish-made margarine Can. Each of the cans contained
the explosive substance TNT, 15 kg in total, 200- and 400-gram
explosive devices and other factory-made mechanisms which were
attached with wires to a vacuum cleaner that she also brought with
her. Explosive devices were also installed in two Slava
wrist-watches. On the same day, they arrived in the Erebuni hotel by a
Moskvich taxi, introduced themselves as an Armenian couple who had
come from the Krasnodar Territory of the Russian Federation, and asked
for a room. They were given room 313 on the third floor.
Two days later, after Rafik, with Nina’s help, planted explosive
devices in a sofa and wound the watch, they secretly disappeared from
the hotel and went back to Baku. The explosion did not take place for
reasons beyond their control. After that, Nina was instructed to
gather information about the social, economic and political situation
in Armenia, for which reason she visited Armenia a few times before
Spring 1994, gathered the requested information and reported it to
Alakbar Ismailov.
In 1995, Ismailov recommended that Shilina should be recruited by the
staffers of the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry Intelligence
Department. She chose the nickname “Argo” and was instructed to gather
military and other information, including on the number of troops in
the army units stationed in the Republic of Armenia and Republic of
Nagornyy Karabakh, the number of officers in them and their technical
equipment. From 1995 to 1997, she would regularly visit Armenia,
gather military and other information and go back to Baku. Since 1997
she had been living in the town of Yekhegnadzor in the Republic of
Armenia, and reported different kinds of information till the day of
her arrest on 6 August 2002.
Incidentally, she also collected military information from Artur
Oganesov, who was also sentenced to imprisonment. He worked at the
operations department of the Staff of the Armenian Defence Ministry
with the rank of lieutenant-colonel in 2000-2001. Oganesov kept
records which included data on the organizational structure of the
army units stationed in the Republics of Armenia and Republic of
Nagornyy Karabakh, about codenames and actual names of the military
units, phone numbers. Shilina became close to Oganesov’s wife, managed
to gain for herself free access to their apartment, and reported
classified records to the Azeris. She was paid 150-300 US dollars for
each piece of information by the secret services.
The others sentenced – Ivetta Filkova, alias “Lilo”, Edgar Filkov,
alias “Dzhoni” and Aleksandr Gasparyan, alias “Tokio” – received
instructions from the Azerbaijani special services via Shilina.
[signed] A. Minasyan