Kidnapped Nagorno-Karabakh man appeals unlawful prison sentence in Azerbaijan

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS. Vagif Khachatryan, an elderly ethnic Armenian man from Nagorno-Karabakh who was kidnapped by Azeri border guards during his ICRC-mediated medical evacuation on July 29 and later sentenced to 15 years in prison in Azerbaijan on fabricated war crime charges, has appealed the verdict, Azerbaijani news media reported.

A preliminary hearing was held at a court of appeals in Baku on December 25.

The first court session is scheduled to take place on January 7, 2024.

Azeri authorities pressed fabricatedchargesagainst Khachatryan and jailed him in Baku.

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

Prominent lawyer Siranush Sahakyansaid that the kidnapping constitutes extraordinary rendition in terms of international law and 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.

Khachatryan’s testimony in court was evendistortedby an Azeri translator earlier in October.