European Court Demands Report from Baku on Armenian Prisoners

STRASBOURG — The European Court of Human Rights has demanded that Azerbaijan provide a report on the conditions and health status of 23 Armenian prisoners held in Baku’s prisons, setting a deadline of November 4.

Siranush Sahakyan, the legal representative for the Armenian prisoners at the European Court, told Azatutyun that in July the Azerbaijani side had petitioned to be released from its obligation to submit such reports. However, after objections from the Armenian government and the prisoners’ representatives, the court ultimately rejected Azerbaijan’s petition and ordered Baku to provide the requested information.

The lawyer noted that although the information will inevitably be compiled by Azerbaijani authorities—who have often been documented providing falsified data—even partial details can still allow for certain observations.

“At least we’ll see how our captives are doing. They won’t say anything else, but at least we’ll have some information—whether those people are alive and how they are being kept, until the time comes to see whether they are returned or not,” a relative of one of the prisoners told Azatutyun.

For nearly three months, Armenian prisoners held in Baku’s prisons have been kept in complete isolation, with no visits from any independent international organizations. No information is available regarding their detention conditions, health, or psychological state. Human rights defenders, however, citing the prisoners’ relatives, have raised alarms about attempted suicides among the detainees.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which last visited the Armenian prisoners in June, permanently suspended its activities in Azerbaijan last month at Baku’s request.