ICRC visits Armenian captives in Azerbaijan

Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Baku visited the Armenian prisoners, ICRC Armenia Communications and Prevention Manager Zara Amatuni told Armenpress.

“The ICRC employees had a regular meeting with all incarcerated Armenians in Baku whose names have been confirmed by Azerbaijani authorities. In accordance with our standard procedures the detainees were given the opportunity to contact their family members,” Amatuni said.

The ICRC is focused on everything pertaining to the conditions of detention and health of the prisoners, she added.

Azerbaijan has officially acknowledged that it is holding 23 Armenian prisoners despite a post-war obligation to release all POWs and detainees. The detainees include former top officials of Nagorno-Karabakh such as the former presidents Bako Sahakyan, Arkady Ghukasyan and Arayik Harutyunyan, as well as former State Minister Ruben Vardanyan.

They are all facing fabricated charges in what many experts and officials have described as mock trials.

Vardanyan, whose case has been separated from the others, recently announced a hunger strike in protest of the sham trial. In a statement, he called on world leaders and the international community to interfere. On February 25, during yet another court session of the Azeri military tribunal, Vardanyan’s health deteriorated and the hearing was postponed. 

The next session will take place on March 4.

Vardanyan 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 earlier slammed the charges as bogus, emphasizing that Baku is using the show trials to cover up its crimes in Nagorno-Karabakh.