After reports of Vardanyan’s health deterioration in Azeri jail, Armenian Ombudsperson calls for swift and proper measures

The Armenian Human Rights Defender’s Office has called on all actors vested with respective mandates to take swift and proper measures to address the processes taking place against unlawfully detained Armenians in Azerbaijan.

The ombudsperson’s office made the remarks as multiple Armenian POWs are facing mock trials in Azerbaijan. Ex-Karabakh official Ruben Vardanyan, one of the many prisoners, has announced a hunger strike and has been reported as feeling unwell.

“As a result of monitoring of social media we received concerning information about the deterioration of Ruben Vardanyan’s health and torture. The Human Rights Defender has numerously spoken about not only the fact that the processes taking place against the unlawfully detained Armenians in Azerbaijan being simply contentious, but that it is taking place in gross violation of universal principles and values of human rights and international legal standards. In relation to the situation, under the instruction of Ombudsperson Anahit Manasyan, the ombudsperson’s staff implemented and continue to implement respective steps within their jurisdiction,” the Human Rights Defender’s Office said in a statement. It added that other details will not be disclosed given the issue’s sensitivity and the importance of working with the principle of ‘do no harm’.

“We emphasize that all actors having the mandate in the sector must take swift and proper steps to address the issue,” the office said.

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan recently described the Azeri trial as “mock trials.”

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 were arrested after the 2023 Azeri offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh which resulted in the forced displacement of the region’s entire Armenian population of over 100,000. 

The former officials are all facing fabricated charges in what many experts and officials have described as sham 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. 

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.  

Jared Genser, Vardanyan’s lawyer, recently said that his client’s health is in danger.