Baku Files New Charges Against Artsakh Leaders Being Held Hostage
Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general has filed new charges against Artsakh leaders who were arrested and transferred to Baku following the depopulation of Artsakh of its Armenian residents last year.
The new charges, which were added to previous trumped up ones, accuse the Artsakh leaders of destroying historic and cultural monuments, without providing details.
Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General Kerman Aliyev who announced last month that the investigation into the previous charges had been completed, added on Tuesday that the dockets have not been sent to the court, allowing him and his office to add to the charges.
Baku announced in early September that the Artsakh leaders would stand trial on the earlier charges, which include anywhere from terrorism to financing and organizing “illegal” armed groups. If they are found guilty by an Azerbaijani court, they can be sentenced to life in prison.
“We are currently in the discovery stage of getting acquainted with the details of the criminal case,” Karman Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general said. “It will take quite a lot of time, because there are too many victims. The accusations are quite serious. They are accused of separatism, destruction of our historical and cultural monuments.”
Following Azerbaijan’s attack on Artsakh last year, which forced the Armenian population there to flee, Azerbaijani authorities arrested Artsakh’s former presidents Arkady Ghoukasian, Bako Sahakian and Arayik Harutyunyan, as well as the Speaker of the Artsakh Parliament Davit Ishkhanyan, Artsakh’s former State Minister Ruben Vartanian, Commander of the Artsakh Armed Forces Samvel Mnatsakanyan, Deputy Commander of the Artsakh Armed Forces Levon Manukyan and Artsakh’s former foreign minister Davit Babayan.
“Azerbaijan’s legal actions of baseless. Everyone knows that they don’t have the right to a fair trial,” Artak Zeynalyan, a lawyer representing the interests of Armenian hostages in international courts, told Azatutyun.am.
He believes that by adding on new charges, Baku is trying to gain more political concessions from Yerevan.
“What Azerbaijan is doing has nothing to do with law, justice, human rights. They are just political dividends, in order to initiate processes in anticipation of political consequences. They are actually hostages, for all intents and purposes, who are being used for extortion,” Zeynalyan said. “This once again proves the fact that Azerbaijan is waging a war with us. The war with Armenia is not over.”
The prosecutor general of Azerbaijan, which is notorious for its severe human rights violations, again stressed that the trials of the Artsakh leaders will take place under “international norms and Azerbaijan’s law.”
“Each of them has several lawyers and the right to become acquainted with the cases, since the accusations are pretty serious,” Kamran Aliyev, the prosecutor general, said.
Zeynalyan called Aliyev remarks “excuses.”
“No trial in Azerbaijan complies with international standards, it does not even comply with the constitution of Azerbaijan. Therefore, the defense attorney provided by Azerbaijan are a mere formality—a farce. This is the case not only for Armenians, but also for citizens of Azerbaijan, as evidenced by the judgments of the European Court against Azerbaijan,” Zeynalyan explained.
Last week, Armenia’s Human Rights Defender Anahit Manasyan also addressed the issue of Artsakh leaders facing trial in Azerbaijan.
She said that violations of the rights of the detained Armenians is taking place with negligent disregard to international legal standards and norms.
“In an atmosphere of hatred toward ethnic Armenians and violations of the presumption of innocence, their fundamental rights cannot be guaranteed in Azerbaijan, and the proper examination of cases in accordance with the requirements of due process cannot be ensured by a fair and impartial court,” Manasyan said.
Zeynalyan explained that his team had proposed to go to Baku and bring a group of defense experts, but Azerbaijani authorities refused to allow that. He explained that they appealed to the European courts, which also refused to take on the case.
