Lawyer reports new flagrant violations of Ruben Vardanyan's rights in Baku court
YEREVAN, July 11. /ARKA/. Lawyer, human rights activist, representative of Armenian prisoners of war in the ECHR Siranush Sahakyan provided clarifications regarding the flagrant violations of the rights of former Artsakh State Minister Ruben Vardanyan by the Baku court.
According to her, the investigative bodies and the court ignored all the defendant's motions, conducting a one-sided, pre-prepared investigation, grossly violating the guarantees of a fair trial, in particular, the principle of equality of arms and adversarial proceedings.
"Moreover, the judges denied Ruben full access to the case materials, while simultaneously attaching falsified records to them. “Jurisdictional guarantees were also violated: the case was transferred to a military tribunal, although Ruben is a civilian and has never had any connection with law enforcement agencies or security services,” Sahakyan noted on Facebook.
According to her, as a result, the trial is developing according to a fundamentally unfair scenario, in which the accused is deprived of a real opportunity to challenge the charges or declare his innocence. “Under such conditions, the very concept of a fair trial is reduced to a formality, completely devoid of content,” Sahakyan emphasized.
About Armenian prisoners of war in Baku
Officially, Azerbaijan confirms the fact of holding only 33 Armenian prisoners of war and civilians, but Armenian human rights activists claim that there are another 80 Armenian prisoners of war.
Since January 17, the so-called trial of 15 Armenian prisoners of war has been underway in Baku. Among them are the former State Minister of Artsakh Ruben Vardanyan, former Presidents of the Republic Bako Sahakyan, Arkady Ghukasyan and Arayik Harutyunyan, former Speaker of the Parliament David Ishkhanyan, former Foreign Minister and former Assistant to the President of the NKR David Babayan, former Commander of the Defense Army Levon Mnatsakanyan, former Deputy Commander of the Defense Army of Artsakh David Manukyan.
