At the end of last week, the Azerbaijani media published a message from the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan, which stated that the detention of notable Artsakhtsi [i.e. Nagorno-Karabakh] figures has been extended. Today, the extension of Ruben Vardanyan’s detention was announced. Oddly, however, there was no mention of the number of months by which the detention period has been extended.
They have been in custody for more than a year, which is already a gross violation of the norms of international law. An additional extension of the detention, selected as a preventive measure, has now been announced. On public platforms, there is not even a mention of the length of time by which the detention has been extended, which is an unprecedented phenomenon in international legal practice. Detention reviews by a non-independent judiciary are also human rights violations that have become endemic.
Since the end of June, the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan has been regularly announcing that the preliminary investigation has been completed and the cases have been sent to court, but the trial has not started in any capacity, whereas, according to internationally accepted practice, the trial should indeed begin shortly after announcing the end of the preliminary investigation.
However, the preliminary investigation in the case of Ruben Vardanyan, in fact, has continued. In September, he was subjected to additional questioning in connection with the statement of the Prime Minister of Armenia. Therefore, the statements about the completion of the preliminary investigation made by the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan in June and September could be more accurately viewed as theses used for external propaganda purposes, while other processes are actually taking place internally that are not transparent and do not correspond with the internationally defined legal standards.
In this situation, it is difficult to understand the logic of an authoritarian regime that exempts itself from heeding international law.
Therefore, we must draw the attention of the international community and the delegations of countries participating in COP29 to the following important facts:
Armenian political prisoners and captives are subject to closed processes, during which their right to effective defense with the involvement of international specialists is not protected.
The rights of detained persons to a fair trial in due time are being violated.
International human rights norms that guarantee the protection of persons deprived of their liberty from arbitrary detention are most cynically disregarded.