Sham Trials of Artsakh Leaders and Ruben Vardanyan Kick Off in Baku
As Official Yerevan Remains Silent, Protesters in Yerevan Call on UN to Intervene and Halt Illegal Trials
The sham trial of Artsakh leaders being illegally held captive by Azerbaijan kicked off on Friday in Baku’s Military Court. A separate trial for Former State Minister Ruben Vardanyan also started on Friday in another courtroom in the same building.
The so-called defendants, former Artsakh presidents Arkady Ghukasian, Bako Sahakian, Arayik Harutyunyan, as well as Artsakh’s former foreign minister David Babayan and Parliament Speaker Davit Ishkhanyan and others were paraded into the courtroom.
The leaders were captured and arrested immediately after Azerbaijan brutally attacked Artsakh in September 2023, forcing the displacement of its Armenian population, which fled to Armenia.
The Artsakh leaders are facing a myriad of charges, including torture, terrorism and creating illegal armed groups.
The Armenian government was eerily silent about the illegal trials, with neither the prime minister’s office nor the foreign ministry issuing statements about the illegal nature of the Artsakh leaders’ capture, prosecution or trial.
Armenia’s Human Rights Defender Anahit Manasyan issued a statement late Friday saying her office is monitoring the events taking place in Baku and decrying that the Artsakh leaders were “declared guilty,” even before the trial began.
“All processes in Baku related to them are taking place in gross violation of universal principles and values of human rights, as well as international legal standards,” Manasyan said.
“It is evident that under the conditions of state-sponsored policy of Armenophobia and ethnic hatred and the violation of the presumption of innocence, the alleged ‘trials’ taking place in Baku contradict the requirements of the right to a fair trial and cannot be considered as being conducted by a fair and impartial court. Various human rights defenders, lawyers, and reputable international actors have raised concerns about the illegality of this process,” Manasyan added.
None of the Artsakh leaders have been allowed to seek their own defense, despite calls by international human rights and legal advocates. Each has been provided with defense counsel assigned by Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general.
“This process will primarily serve to establish the state responsibility and other illegal actions of Armenia as an occupying, aggressive country through judicial means,” the state-run apa.az news agency reported on Friday.
The prosecutors announced that the criminal cases against the Artsakh leaders involve more than 531,000 individuals and their representatives.
After the charges were read for the record, the court adjourned. The trial is scheduled to resume on January 21.
Vardanyan, who is being tried separately on 45 different charges, had petitioned the court to merge his case with the other 15 Artsakh Armenians who are facing bogus charges and sham trials.
The prosecution objected to the motion, which automatically was approved by presiding judge, Zeynal Aghayev, the apa.az reported.
The court granted a 10-day continuance to Vardanyan, whose trial is scheduled to resume on January 27.
Vardanyan has vehemently denied all charges against him, which include “financing terrorism” and “illegally entering” Karabakh. Vardanyan, as well as many experts, have described the charges as falsifications.
The former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, recently, again, slammed the charges as bogus, emphasizing that Baku is using the show trials to cover up its crimes in Nagorno-Karabakh. He also compared the tactics being used by Azerbaijan to those that were commonly employed by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Vardanyan reiterated his complete innocence and the innocence of the other Armenians also being held as political prisoners and demanded an immediate end to the politically motivated case. He warned that all protocols bearing his signature are fabricated, because he has not provided any testimony. Vardanyan said his lawyer and interpreter were coerced into signing the documents.
Demonstrators in Yerevan gathered outside the United Nations Armenia offices on Friday to demand that the international body intervene to obtain the release of all Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan.
Participants of the demonstration included former Nagorno-Karabakh officials and representatives of several organizations.
They submitted a petition to the UN office calling for practical steps to release the prisoners, to preserve the Armenian heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh, to ensure the right to return of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh and implement mechanisms to determine the fate of the missing persons.
Narine Aghabalyan, the Karabakh program leader of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, said it is important to once again raise their voice about the crime against justice and draw the world’s attention on the Azerbaijani government’s criminal conduct since the trial of the Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan will start on January 17. The judicial process in Azerbaijan against the Armenians is widely seen as a show trial.
“Ruben Vardanyan’s latest statement highlights the alarming situation and the embarrassing condition of the justice system in Azerbaijan. Vardanyan’s statement was a call on all of us, both the Armenian society and the international community, to take appropriate steps,” she said.
Gegham Stepanyan, Artsakh’s Human Rights Defender, said that all their efforts are aimed at stopping as soon as possible the torture of the unlawfully detained Armenians in Baku and achieving their release.
