Azeri mock trials void of legal power, says Speaker

The ongoing mock trials of Armenian POWs, including ex-officials of Karabakh, in Azerbaijan don’t constitute actual trials, Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan has said.

“In my view that’s not a trial,” the Speaker told reporters. “I’m not sure that any member of the international community, international court or figure could give a positive assessment that those trials could have a legal power in case of a country [Azerbaijan] with that level of democracy, closed trials and such sights,” Simonyan said, referring to the ongoing mock trials against 23 POWs held in Azerbaijan.

Last week, a senior Armenian official expressed concern over images of the POWs during the trials.  

The prisoners 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.

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