Ruben Vardanyan’s international lawyer, Jared Genser, called on President Donald Trump to fulfill his public promise to release all Armenian prisoners of war on his microblog, X.
“The 20-year sentence of the Baku Military Court on false charges against Ruben Vardanyan is a mockery of justice.
The only “crime” of Ruben Vardanyan, a respected businessman and philanthropist, was defending the right to self-determination of the Armenian Christian people of Nagorno-Karabakh, approximately 120,000 of whom were expelled to Armenia as victims of ethnic cleansing initiated by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The trial itself was a complete sham, as it is illegal to try civilians in a military court.
The trial was also held in secret, with numerous procedural violations, such as numerous refusals to contact a lawyer and the court’s simple disregard for dozens of motions, which, incidentally, under Azerbaijani law, must be considered within a few days.
Furthermore, literally all of the so-called “evidence” from the summoned “witnesses” was hearsay, and therefore illegal to consider as evidence. Each witness claimed that they or their family members had suffered attacks by Armenian soldiers or other armed groups, but the “evidence” linking Ruben Vardanyan to all of this was reports of his guilt in Azerbaijani state media. This is not evidence. Therefore, Ruben Vardanyan’s conviction violates both international and Azerbaijani law, and he must be immediately and unconditionally released along with the other 19 Armenian Christian political prisoners and prisoners of war. “I call on President Donald Trump to fulfill his public promise to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and secure their release from President Aliyev so that they can safely return to Armenia.”
2026-02-18