“The appeal stage of our so-called trial has ended as well. Well, what kind of trial was it? This was a theater whose script had been written in advance,” former Foreign Minister of Artsakh Davit Babayan said in a message from a Baku prison. He spoke about the mistakes made during the “trials,” the fabricated charges, and the state of health of himself and those sharing his fate.
Below, we present an excerpt from Davit Babayan’s message:
“In the Court of Appeal, citizens did not participate in the proceedings, whereas in the court of first instance, around 200–300 people were present each time. Of course, they were all brought in selectively, on special buses. In addition, according to some information, they were also well paid, but this time there was no one. One of the reasons is that those people saw what kind of abuses were being committed there, saw the weak positions of their side, our self-defense, our persistence, the quality of that self-defense, and naturally, whether they want it or not, all of this also penetrates their society. It is very interesting that such ideas are being put into circulation that it is simply impossible to imagine them. For example, a crime committed by one person is automatically attributed to everyone. Or ideas that are altogether impossible to imagine in the history of the international community. For example, they added two life-imprisonment charges to my case, which did not exist and were never mentioned at any point during the entire trial.
I saw this when, one week after the trial ended, they gave us an abridged written version of all that. I asked them to look at our statements, both the final statement in the court of first instance and the main statements made during this trial, and to provide them in video format to their Human Rights Defender, but they refused. They say that it is an open trial, yet they refuse to provide all of this even to their own Human Rights Defender.
One of the interesting phenomena is that the defenders have also been changed; 5–6 defenders have changed during this period. One was changed right at the beginning of the examination in the Court of Appeal. I tried to find out what the reason was, and they said it was health-related. During the court hearing, I said: contact them via video call, I want to personally find out how they are. They, of course, became anxious, did not connect the call, and said that their lives were not in danger.
One of the interesting developments is also that one of the defenders here stated that they themselves do not want the case to reach an international court, because more than 95% of the charges are fabricated and there is no evidence whatsoever. Indeed, that is the case.
Let me give one specific example. In particular, I was sentenced to life imprisonment under an article according to which I was allegedly trying to overthrow the authorities here, overthrow the constitution, and so on. I asked: is there any evidence that, while being here, I participated in the struggle for your power? If that were the case, then I should have had like-minded people throughout your entire country, cells of some organization. Of course, there is no answer whatsoever.
In addition, in court, all of our complaints were satisfied 100% in favor of the prosecuting side. In the court of first instance, 99.4% had been satisfied in favor of the prosecuting side.
It is quite characteristic that instead of evidence, they also use substitutes - lies, falsifications, toasts, their various political approaches, slogans, and so on.
Sometimes we have tried to see the records, how all of this is documented in their records, and we have seen that they do not include what we say at all, or, at best, include it in a highly abbreviated or distorted form. This is nothing other than legal apartheid.
What can be said when it is officially declared that it is necessary to expand the scope of unintentional killings in order to accuse everyone of murder?” Babayan also noted that he has a health problem, about which he spoke in court and asked that all of it be recorded: “Of course, I have my doubts, it is understandable that they would not want me to go to an international court. I am not the only one with health problems. A number of our friends truly have serious health problems. Of course, to some extent, this is to be expected, because we are fighting for justice and freedom, for human rights, in this evil world, and that does not happen just like that.
It is one thing to fight for justice, another thing to be imprisoned for it, but know that although we are imprisoned, we are not on our knees, and let everyone know this. As for the rest, everything is fine, stay strong, dear compatriots, people of goodwill, our homeland still faces difficult phenomenons,” said Babayan.