Azerbaijan confirms the capture of 60 servicemen and civilians. Since the 44-day war, 280 applications for interim measures have been submitted to the European Court: the Office of the Representative of Armenia to the ECHR submitted 144, 136 were individual complaints.
“We have applications related to 142 persons, about whom Azerbaijan has not provided clear information, i.e. it has not been confirmed that the persons mentioned in those applications are in captivity in Azerbaijan,” says Liparit Drmeyan, Head of the Office of the Representative of the Republic of Armenia to the ECHR.
Criminal cases against detainees have no legal basis and are contrary to international law. Prosecution of false charges is accompanied by gross violations of the guarantees of a fair trial.
The Office of the Representative of the Republic of Armenia to ECHR is currently pursuing professional discussions with the competent state bodies, other interested parties, on the possibility of resorting to possible effective tools in the context of other international legal mechanisms to obtain information on illegal prosecutions of captive Armenians, to intervene or prevent them.
The representative of Armenia in the ECHR urges to refrain from public discussions on the issue of Armenian prisoners of war illegally convicted in Azerbaijan on trumped-up charges, taking into account the hypersensitivity of the issue.
Office of the Representative of the Republic of Armenia to the European Court of Human Rights states that considering that the ongoing international legal processes are of a complex, multi-layered nature, as well as the fact that the Azerbaijani authorities will try to use any opportunity to ‘legalize’ the fake criminal prosecutions initiated by them, the Office of Armenia’s Representative to ECHR reports its willingness to cooperate with lawyers, advocates, the Chamber of Advocates or any other persons and/or human rights organizations to discuss the matter with the Office before taking any action.
Baku court publishes indictment of Armenian prisoners of war: 14 Armenian prisoners face up to 20 years or life in prison. Ara Ghazaryan says it is not a trial, but an imitation. Any violation of the right to a fair trial makes the trial unfair.
“Azerbaijan will not be able to prove to the international community, the European Court that it has granted these rights. It can't either, because as soon as it provides it, the case will collapse, it will turn out that it is nonsense, a legend, it is not a story based on facts,” says Ara Ghazaryan, International Law Specialist.
“Azerbaijan continues violations, trials, all events are promptly presented to international organizations. The reaction happens,” says Sergey Ghazinyan, Adviser to Armenia’s Human Rights Defender.
Azerbaijan understands that the longer the trials, the more the situation will work against it. Ara Ghazaryan is sure that there will be verdicts against Azerbaijan, maybe those verdicts will be the oppressive mechanism for Baku to decide to extradite the captives to Armenia.
But the case will not end with that. The lawyer is convinced that new problems will open up for Azerbaijan regarding the farce of the trial.
