Azeri court sentences kidnapped ICRC evacuee from Nagorno-Karabakh to 15 years in prison

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. A Baku court has sentenced Vagif Khachatryan, the elderly ethnic Armenian man from Nagorno-Karabakh who was kidnapped by Azeri border guards during his ICRC-mediated medical evacuation on July 29, to 15 years in prison on fabricated war crime charges.

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

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

The kidnapped man’s daughter, in aplea to the UN to ensure the safe release of her 65-year-old father, said that all charges pressed by the Azeri prosecution are fabricated and her father is innocent.