The publicizing of the “indictment” against Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) former state minister Ruben Vardanyan continues Thursday in the Baku Military Court, in Azerbaijani capital Baku.

The examination of the fabricated cases against both Vardanyan and the other former military and political leaders of Artsakh who are held captive in Azerbaijan is “entrusted” to the same judge, Zeynal Aghayev.

But who is Aghayev in reality? This judge can truly be considered “irreplaceable” for Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev’s regime, since the most controversial political cases have been presided over by Aghayev and critics of the regime have been convicted by him.

According to the Institute for Peace and Democracy, Aghayev is the judge who has presided over the cases of Azerbaijanis being convicted for their political views. He presided over also the case of Armenian prisoners of war in 2021. His name appeared in the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights report on political prisoners in Azerbaijan, where he is noted as a judge who presides over political cases and, in essence, carries out political orders.

Aghayev’s name is also in the United States’ Azerbaijan Sanctions Review Act of 2024, which requires the country’s president to apply Magnitsky Act sanctions to high-ranking Azerbaijani officials who have carried out ethnic cleansing against Artsakh Armenians and who continue to exert pressure on the Azerbaijani political opposition.

In the previous court session, Ruben Vardanyan had filed a motion to recuse the judicial panel, but it was denied by the court.

These Azerbaijani “trials” against Armenians, which began on January 17, and presided over by the judge with the abovementioned “track record,” continue to be held behind closed doors, with the participation of only Azerbaijani state media, and no independent observers can attend them.