Three more Armenian prisoners of war were released from the Azerbaijani captivity on Tuesday, May 4, Armenpress reports citing Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan’s office.

The plane carrying the captives landed in Yerevan on Tuesday evening, hours after several media outlets and social media users began spreading information about their possible return.

According to a statement provided by Avinyan’s office, Azerbaijan returned the Armenian prisoners of war "thanks to the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries, amid growing international pressure."

“We are hopeful that this process will have its logical continuation and will be settled soon,” the statement reads.

The move comes a day after it was revealed that 19 of the hundreds of Armenian civilians and servicemen, who were taken captive by Azerbaijan during and after military hostilities in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), have been tortured and killed.

So far, more than 70 Armenian POWs have returned home. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev claims that persons still being kept in Baku are not prisoners of war but “terrorists and saboteurs”. Officials and human rights advocates from the Armenian side, however, maintain Azerbaijan is still holding hundreds of people hostage, pledging to submit evidence proving the capture of said persons to international agencies and courts.