Moderna’s Noubar Afeyan calls for vigilance in Ruben Vardanyan’s Azerbaijan trial to avoid "grotesque injustice”

As Azerbaijan is set to begin what many have described as a show trial against former Nagorno-Karabakh official Ruben Vardanyan, the American-Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist Noubar Afeyan called for vigilance in order to avoid “grotesque injustice” in the process.

“Please read these compelling facts,” Afeyan, founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering and co-founder of Moderna, said on X and shared Vardanyan’s latest statement. “We should all remain vigilant, and do what we can to promote the prospect of a fair trial and avoid a grotesque injustice.”

Please read these compelling facts. We should all remain vigilant, and do what we can to promote the prospect of a fair trial and avoid a grotesque injustice. https://t.co/pXXPsw5FmV

— Noubar Afeyan (@NoubarAfeyan) January 17, 2025

Vardanyan, the former State Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh, has vehemently denied all charges against him which include “financing terrorism” and “illegally entering” Karabakh. Vardanyan, as well as many experts, have described the charges as falsifications. The former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno Ocampo recently once again slammed the charges as bogus, emphasizing that Baku is using the show trials to cover up its crimes in Nagorno-Karabakh.

In 2023, armed forces of the Government of Azerbaijan invaded Nagorno-Karabakh, leading to the forced displacement of nearly 120,000 Armenians. During the flight of the refugees, Vardanyan and seven other former officials were arrested and have been facing politically motivated, fabricated charges.