“Mockery of European Convention”, senior diplomat lambasts Azeri kangaroo court against kidnapped Nagorno-Karabakh man

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 13, ARMENPRESS. Ambassador-at-Large Edmon Marukyan has called on Azerbaijan to stop the treatments that degrade people’s fundamental freedoms and human dignity and release all prisoners from Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh immediately.

The trial of Vagif Khachatryan, abducted from Nagorno Karabakh, has started in Azerbaijan today. He, of course, has nothing to do with the crime, he is merely punished for being born in Nagorno Karabagh and for living on his ancestral land.

I want to make this very clear, in… pic.twitter.com/Y3fcjiZ4Jn

— Edmon Marukyan (@edmarukyan) October 13, 2023

Marukyan made the comments after a court in Azerbaijan started a sham trial of Vagif Khachatryan, the elderly resident of Nagorno-Karabakh who was kidnapped by Azeri border guards during his ICRC-mediated medical evacuation.

In a statement on X, Marukyan said that all existing proceedings in Azerbaijan are a farce, a mockery of the European Convention and a violation of all universally accepted international norms in the context of all obligations undertaken by Azerbaijan itself.

“The trial of Vagif Khachatryan, abducted from Nagorno Karabakh, has started in Azerbaijan today. He, of course, has nothing to do with the crime, he is merely punished for being born in Nagorno Karabagh and for living on his ancestral land. I want to make this very clear, in Azerbaijan, where the government has not changed for more than 20 years, during which 5 presidents were elected in Nagorno-Karabakh, which Freedom House rated as partially free with 37 score by all indicators, and Azerbaijan - Not Free, with 9 scores, there cannot be a fair trial, fair court and/or fair accusation. All existing proceedings are a farce, a mockery of the European Convention and a violation of all universally accepted international norms in the context of all obligations undertaken by Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan must end the treatments that degrade people’s fundamental freedoms and human dignity and release all prisoners from Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh immediately. P. S. In the video you can see a crying man in the fake court hearing,” Marukyan said on X.

A Baku court has held a preliminary hearing in the show trial of Vagif Khachatryan, an elderly Nagorno-Karabakh man who was kidnapped by Azeri border guards during his ICRC-mediated medical evacuation on July 29.

In Baku, the Azeri authorities pressed fabricatedchargesagainst Khachatryan. Khachatryan has since been jailed in Azerbaijan.

The hearing in the show trial will continue on October 17.

The Armenian foreign ministry earliersaidthat the arrest of the Red Cross-protected patient from Nagorno-Karabakh amounts to war crime.

Prominent lawyer Siranush Sahakyan earliersaidthat the kidnapping constitutes extraordinary rendition in terms of international law and a due process is therefore ruled out.

The kidnapped man’s daughter, in apleato the UN to ensure the safe release of her father, said that all charges pressed by the Azeri prosecution are fabricated and her father is innocent.