Intelligence indicates banned methods used against Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan to extort testimonies for escalation, warns PM

Armenia has intelligence data indicating that the Azerbaijani authorities are using banned psychoactive methods against the Armenian prisoners in order to extort narratives or testimonies aimed at inciting regional escalation, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said.

Pashinyan was asked during an interview aired on Public Television to comment on allegations that his administration hasn’t done much to release the Armenian prisoners in Baku because the detained former Karabakh officials are said to be his political opponents.

The Prime Minister strongly denied these allegations.

“I don’t consider anyone there to be my political opponent, and furthermore, we realize that what is happening there is not only seriously concerning but will be used and is used for inciting new escalation in the region. Moreover, we have intelligence data that banned psychoactive methods are being used against those individuals in order to extort narratives and testimonies aimed at inciting regional escalation. We are deeply concerned over this process,” Pashinyan said.

Commenting on the trial in Baku, he added, “That trial will be used against the Republic of Armenia, it is possible that through banned psychoactive methods they will extort from those individuals the kind of testimonies that will be used against the Republic of Armenia in the most various ways. We understand this issue very well and very deeply.”

Pashinyan said the government is doing everything it can to resolve the matter.