The Office of the Representative of Armenia before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has made a statement over the ongoing illegal criminal prosecutions of Armenian prisoners of war in Azerbaijan.

The statement says that according to the information gained on the sidelines of the inter-state legal processes initiated by the Armenian government in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and collected from open public sources, currently the Azerbaijani authorities are conducting fake criminal prosecutions against Armenian citizens who have been captured during the war unleashed on September 27, 2020, and are still being held in Azerbaijan with obvious gross violations of international humanitarian law.

The statement adds Armenian government has repeatedly officially announced and reaffirms now as well its position that persons currently illegally held in Azerbaijan are considered prisoners of war as well as civilians who have been taken hostage, and they benefit from the protection guarantees in accordance with the 1949 Geneva Convention, and any criminal case against captured Armenians has no legal ground and openly contradicts the international legal norms.

The aforesaid office added that it has repeatedly applied to the ECHR requesting to stop the ongoing criminal prosecutions against the Armenian captives, release them, or to guarantee their rights in another way. However, the only urgent measure within the ECHR is the applying of an interim measure, which, unfortunately, is limited, and the ECHR cannot intervene in the ongoing criminal prosecutions against these persons.

Also, the Office of the Representative of Armenia before the ECHR noted that since the Azerbaijani authorities will attempt to use every opportunity to "exemplify" the fake criminal prosecutions initiated by them, it is ready to cooperate with lawyers, attorneys, the chamber of advocates, or any other persons and/or human rights organizations interested in the matter.