Former Foreign Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh David Babayan, who is in Azerbaijani captivity, has appealed to all human rights activists and people of good will. Babayan's respective audio message was transmitted to Armenian News-NEWS.am through his family, and we present below the translated English text of this message.

"Dear compatriots, dear friends, sisters and brothers, Armenians around the world, all our sisters and brothers of other nationalities, people of good will: You know that the ‘appeal’ phase of our so-called trial has also ended. What trial? This was a theater, the script of which was written in advance. They did not even dare to correct elementary mistakes. For example, when presenting those in attendance to the last [court] session, when they left those verdicts in force, they presented my [legal] defenders in the old composition, in the case when they had changed during this trial. That is, not only did they not consider it necessary to check, but they also did not dare to change the script written in advance, even to correct the mistakes that are there.

This was a purely formal phase that we had to go through in order to use it later to petition to international court.

In the court of appeal [of Azerbaijan], citizens did not participate in the process, in the case when in the court of first instance, about 200-300 people were in attendance each time. Of course, they were all being brought selectively, in special buses. In addition, according to some information, they were also being well paid—but this time there was no one. One of the reasons is that these people were seeing what kind of abuses are being committed there, they were seeing the weak positions of their side, our self-defense, our persistence, the quality of that self-defense, and it is natural that all this, willingly or unwillingly, also penetrates their society.

It is very interesting that such ideas are being put into circulation that it is simply impossible to imagine it. For example, a crime committed by one person is automatically attributed to everyone. Or ideas that are completely impossible to imagine in the history of the international community. For example, they added two life [sentence] [criminal code] articles to me, which did not exist, were never mentioned during the entire trial. I saw this when a week after the trial ended, they gave us a summary of all of it. I asked [them] to watch our remarks, whether it was the closing statement to the court of first instance, or the main remarks of this trial, and to transmit [them] to their human rights defender in a video version, but they refused. They say that it is an ‘open trial,’ but they refuse to provide all of that even to their human rights defender.

One of the interesting phenomena is that the defense attorneys have also changed 5-6 defense attorneys have changed during this period. One changed right at the start of the trial in the Court of Appeals. I tried to find out what the reason was; they said it was health. In court, during the trial, I said, ‘Contact them via video call; I want to find out personally how they are.’ Of course, they got perplexed, they didn't connect [to the defense attorney], they said that there was no risk to their lives."

Of course, they wouldn't let [us] continue the remark at every moment, they would interrupt [us], they would disrupt [us]. We need all this to submit in international court.

One of the interesting developments is that one of the defense attorneys here has stated that they don't want the case to reach international court, because more than 95% of the accusations are fabricated and there is no evidence. That's really the case. Let me bring a specific example. In particular, I was sentenced to life imprisonment under an article [of the Azerbaijani criminal code] according to which I was trying to overthrow the power here [in Azerbaijan], overthrow the [Azerbaijani] constitution, etc. I posed a question: ‘Is there any evidence that, while I was here, I participated in the struggle for your power? If so, then I must have had supporters, cells of some organization throughout your country.’ Of course, there is no answer.

In addition, all our appeals in court were 100% granted in favor of the prosecution. In the court of first instance, 99.4% were granted in favor of the prosecution. I expressed my gratitude for such quality and quantity of errors, because this is very important for us, it will also contribute to the restoration of justice, because we will submit all this in international court.

It is quite noteworthy that instead of evidence, they also use substitutes: lies, forgeries, toasts, their different political approaches, slogans, etc. Sometimes we have tried to see the notes, how all this is recorded in their documents, we have seen that what we said is not included at all, or at best they include it in a severely reduced or distorted form. This is nothing more than legal apartheid.

What can be said when it is officially announced that it is necessary to expand the scope of unintentional killings so that everyone can be accused of murders?”

Also David Babayan also noted that he has a health problem, which he spoke about in court and asked that all this be recorded.

“Of course, I doubt, it is understandable that they will not want me to go to international court. I am not the only one with health problems. A number of our friends really have serious health problems. Of course, it is to be expected to some extent, because we are fighting for justice and freedom, for human rights in this evil world, and it does not just happen.

It is one thing to fight for justice, it is another thing to sit [in prison] for it. But know [that] although we are sitting [in an Azerbaijani prison], we are not kneeling, and let everyone know this. Everything else is normal, be strong, dear compatriots, people of good will. Difficult events still await our homeland," Babayan concluded.