Azerbaijan has taken the legal route, attempting to implement a political order through legal proceedings, said Siranush Sahakyan, director of the Center for International and Comparative Law, in an interview with 1in.am.
“Azerbaijan has turned the courts into an instrument of political struggle; the formal observance of procedural rules is inevitable, and we saw that in previous stages evidence was allegedly examined, yet there was no connection between the evidence and the individuals. We heard testimonies by people who do not personally know the Armenians who ended up in the defendants’ seats; they spoke about events, places, and times where the Armenian detainees had not been present. This was particularly striking in the case of Ruben Vardanyan, but similarly, this deviation existed in the cases of all Armenian detainees,” said Sahakyan.
According to the human rights defender, after the completion of the evidence phase, they were supposed to move on to the so-called stage of judicial debates, and at the end, the individuals who found themselves in the defendants’ seats were supposed to be given the opportunity for a final statement. The prosecutors propose as punishment either life imprisonment or long-term imprisonment, that is, the most severe types of punishment have been proposed. The Public Defender’s Office, which during this period did not carry out the defense with great activity and diligence, nevertheless in all cases denied the guilt of the Armenian defendants, and those defenders stated that the Armenians had not committed crimes and requested acquittal: “The Armenians deny having committed any criminal act and believe that the prosecution is political, and that Azerbaijan is attempting to criminalize actions carried out within the framework of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which does not stem from international law.”
According to Sahakyan, the trials have reached their conclusion; the Azerbaijani courts will announce their withdrawal to the deliberation room, and in January 2026 we will hear the announced verdicts. “Here the outcome is clear to all of us: all Armenians will be convicted, and the harshest punishments proposed by the prosecutors will simply be ratified through these courts.”
The journalist asked whether Armenia can initiate remote trials, for example, against Azerbaijani representatives, as leverage, as a tool to show that Armenia can also demonstrate a similar approach. According to Sahakyan, the Republic of Armenia has jurisdiction to investigate all crimes committed against its citizens. Even if the crimes are committed outside the territory of Armenia, there is the principle of personal jurisdiction, which means that a country has the right to investigate crimes committed against its own citizen, especially if the territorial state does not conduct an effective investigation. “Azerbaijan, first of all, does not punish its criminals who act against ethnic Armenians; even if formal judicial acts are adopted, through the application of the institutions of amnesty and pardon they are granted impunity. The Republic of Armenia, seeing that there is no effective investigation into crimes committed against its citizens and also against Armenia’s sovereignty, can conduct an independent investigation and, as a result of the investigation, identify the perpetrators. Armenia’s criminal and criminal procedure legislation did not have the institution of remote trials, and proceedings without the participation of the defendant were prohibited; the defendant had to be physically present at the trial. This norm was changed, and if we examine the discussions of the amendment, including in the National Assembly, we will see that war crimes and the need to investigate them were repeatedly referenced. At present, this norm has been introduced, which makes it possible to complete cases and send them to court by conducting remote investigations.”
Armenian prisoners held in Baku, in particular the military-political leadership of Artsakh, are accused under absurd articles - from war crimes to terrorism. But Azerbaijan has signed internationally recognized documents with representatives whom it itself accuses of such crimes. According to Sahakyan, such an approach has no right to exist. “There is an officially signed document with the participation of Heydar Aliyev, under which the authorities of the Republic of Armenia, the authorities of Azerbaijan represented by Heydar Aliyev, and the authorities of Artsakh have signed. And we know that in international law there is situational recognition, that is, if you conclude an agreement, a treaty, or enter into other diplomatic contacts with an unrecognized state, these are considered forms of recognition. In essence, at that stage Azerbaijan had already carried out situational recognition of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic by entering into contractual relations with its leaders.”