The Baku Military Court of Azerbaijan on Thursday continued the examination of the case against Ruben Vardanyan and the other former Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) officials.

Vardanyan's case is being examined separately and will continue on February 10. The examination of the case of other Artsakh figures will resume today.

According to Azerbaijani media, excerpts from the indictments were presented at yesterday's sessions. Also, former Artsakh president Arayik Harutyunyan and former foreign minister David Babayan were given the opportunity to speak. In addition, a part of his indictment was presented in relation to Ruben Vardanyan.

In an interview with Armenian News-NEWS.am, lawyer Siranush Sahakyan, the representative of Armenian prisoners of war at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), shared some details from Ruben Vardanyan's trial, which were passed on to Vardanyan's family by a local lawyer.

"We have certain alternative information from the [court] session on Ruben Vardanyan's case, which the family received through his lawyer Avraam Berman. At the hearing, the defense attorney presented two objections, one of which was regarding the translator. In addition to the fact that the fabricated case file contains 422 volumes in Azerbaijani, it turned out that the translator assigned to him, who was supposed to provide at least an oral translation of the case materials—since making written translation, even notes, are not allowed—, did not provide even a normal oral translation, and made serious mistakes. In some places, there were even references to the legislation of Belarus, not Azerbaijan. According to the information provided to me, the court ordered Ruben Vardanyan and his defense attorney to provide a proper translation. And this was only during the third hearing, when the examination of the merits of the case began. In addition, all the defense attorney's motions to receive copies of the case file and to familiarize themselves with the content of the videotapes were denied. Naturally, the Azerbaijani media do not report this,” noted Siranush Sahakyan.

As for the statements of Arayik Harutyunyan and David Babayan, Sahakyan noted that they are, of course, made under pressure.

“These testimonies do not sound credible for any international specialist,” she added. 

Sahakyan noted that from the published excerpts of the indictment, it becomes clear that the general meaning of this trial is to achieve the inadmissibility of the principle of Artsakh’s right to self-determination and to destroy all efforts for self-determination.

“They [i.e. Azerbaijan] are attempting at every opportunity to show that all this was a ‘criminal activity of occupying territories,”’ noted Siranush Sahakyan.