‘Complete disregard of any norms’, Armenian foreign ministry spox slams Azeri sham trial against kidnapped ICRC evacuee

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 13, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ani Badalyan has slammed the “sham trial” in Azerbaijan against a kidnapped elderly Armenian man.

In a post on X, Badalyan said that the proceedings are a “show of complete disregard of any norms in Baku.”

“Sham "trial", show of complete disregard of any norms in Baku against Armenian civilian, 68-year-old resident of Nagorno Karabakh [NK] who under ICRC protection was being transported to Armenia for heart surgery & was abducted at illegal checkpoint weeks before ethnic cleansing in NK. Illegal abduction, in flagrant violation of IHL [international humanitarian law], is now followed by publication of videos & photos showing suffering of 68-year-old civilian. As requested by numerous int’l human rights orgs & institutions, Armenian POWs & civilians still kept hostage in Baku should be released,” Badalyan said.

2/2 Illegal abduction,in flagrant violation of IHL, is now followed by publication of videos & photos showing suffering of 68-year-old civilian.

As requested by numerous int’l human rights orgs & institutions, ARM POWs & civilians still kept hostage in Baku should be released. pic.twitter.com/CWXX83ILJp

— Ani Badalyan, Spokesperson of MFA of Armenia (@ArmSpoxMFA) October 13, 2023

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 saidthat 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.