YEREVAN, OCTOBER 25, ARMENPRESS. Individual appeal over cases of 6 Armenian prisoners of war has been submitted to the European Court of Human Rights aimed at obliging Azerbaijan to ensure the inviolability of life of POWs, their right to health and communication with their family members, lawyer Siranush Sahakyan told Armenpress.

“The task is to ensure the inviolability of life of POWs, provide immediate medical care because some POWs have injuries and may face life-threatening problems in case of absence of proper medical care. In addition, another problem is to ensure the communication with their family members and a visit opportunity to the representatives of the International Committee of Red Cross”, Sahakyan said.

She informed that the ECHR is monitoring the cases of POWs Areg Sargsyan, Narek Amirjanyan and Samvel Asatryan and demanded Azerbaijan to provide information about their health condition, and as for the cases of Valera Hayrapetyan, Edik Tonoyan and Albert Mikayelyan, they are still waiting for response.

“An important issue is to be able to contribute to and accelerate the exchange process of POWs, which is within the frames of the international commitments and a respective agreement was reached twice between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but they are not being ensured, therefore we expect that the ECHR will enter into this process with its legal tools and will try to force in order for the exchange process to take place”, she added.

Siranush Sahakyan informed that they will submit applications to the ECHR soon, but these appeals are currently at the drafting stage.

“There are cases which are in videos and we are managing to very quickly organize the process, however, there are some cases which we claim based on eyewitnesses reports. We also carry out additional check operations for this purpose, and when they are confirmed, we will inform the public”, Sahakyan said.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan