The Armenian government has petitioned to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) regarding Azerbaijan arresting Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) former state minister Ruben Vardanyan at the Azerbaijani checkpoint on the Hakari bridge. The Armenian side has demanded to provide information about his status, detention conditions, and health condition.
Yeghishe Kirakosyan, Armenia's representative on international legal affairs, told reporters at the National Assembly Thursday that the petition to request an individual interim temporary measure regarding the guarantee of the protection of Vardanyan's rights was sent to the ECtHR Wednesday.
"They demanded from the court to guarantee Mr. Vardanyan's rights: right to life, prohibition of torture, inhuman, cruel treatment. We hope that the court will respond quickly. In any case, we are in contact with his relatives, too; and if we receive a response, we will convey [it] to them," Kirakosyan said.
When asked whether Armenia is ready to address this matter to other courts, Kirakosyan said: "I will not say where we are going to petition; you will definitely know when we petition. We have two main international instances; one is the ECtHR, the other—the International Court of Justice."
And regarding Azerbaijan's "blacklist" and whether it is possible to prevent the arrests of the persons on that list, Yeghishe Kirakosyan said: "There are publications with the names of different people, and we see there the names of the people who are in the risk zone, or we can assume which group of people it can be about. In any case, we will be consistent in that regard, too. I don't picture how the prevention will be possible to do. But I believe in this case we should act post facto. There are certain measure that you will soon learn about. We will try to use those possible legal measures in order to work towards prevention."
Former Minister of State of Artsakh, Ruben Vardanyan, was arrested Wednesday by Azerbaijan on his way from Artsakh to Armenia. He has already been imprisoned for four months in Azerbaijan and charged with "financing terrorism."
