Former Artsakh Foreign Minister David Babayan has sent a new message from a Baku prison, detailing the latest developments in the cases against Armenian captives illegally held in Azerbaijan.
According to Babayan, on September 18 they were given an electronic copy of the appellate court’s decision, consisting of 47 volumes. He said the files, as before, contain no signatures or other markings confirming their official status.
Babayan also said lawyers representing three of the Armenian captives have filed cassation appeals with Azerbaijan’s Supreme Court without meeting with their clients. It remains unclear whether appeals have been filed for the others.
He said the appellate court’s decision “99.9 percent” repeats the prosecution’s case and the ruling of the court of first instance, while testimony and arguments important to the defense were censored or removed entirely.
Babayan pointed to accusations that they belonged to a supposed “criminal organization,” which he said effectively criminalizes Artsakh and its state institutions.
As a counterargument, he cited former Azerbaijani leader Heydar Aliyev’s official negotiations with the Artsakh authorities. According to Babayan, that reference was removed from the appellate court materials.
He also rejected the economic charges against him, noting that he has never been involved in business.
Babayan further said the final, 47th volume, a 333-page section containing the reasoning for upholding the previous rulings, was not provided to them at all.
“We are not losing hope. We have no right to, and we will not. We are standing firm,” Babayan said.
Full statement:
“Dear compatriots, patriotic compatriots, and all those who are not indifferent,
Our sisters and brothers, both in the Diaspora and in the homeland,
Our non-Armenian sisters and brothers around the world, people of goodwill,
Over the past 10 to 12 days, two important developments have taken place in connection with our trial.
This is not simply a trial against us. This is a trial against the Armenian people, against international law, and against God’s commandments.
So, on the 18th, we were given the electronic version of the appellate court’s ruling. Naturally, just as before, there are no signatures on it, not even the slightest indication that it is an official document. Nevertheless, they brought it and gave it to us. It consists of 47 volumes in total.
The second development is that our defense lawyers have filed cassation appeals with their Supreme Court. Lawyers representing three people have filed appeals. As for the others, they either have not filed them or we have not been informed that they have. Perhaps this is some kind of game, I do not know for what purpose. Nevertheless, these are the two important developments that have taken place.
As for the ruling itself, I can say that 99.9% of it has effectively been copied from the prosecution and from the decision of the court of first instance. It does not differ from them in any meaningful way. In other words, it is some kind of copy-pasted document.
But unlike the previous documents, this time they have adopted a slightly different approach when it comes to falsification. If the prosecution and the court of first instance simply lied, attributed things to us that we had never said, or completely omitted what we had actually said, here they have chosen a slightly different method. They have censored our statements and removed certain important parts. And this has been done throughout the document.
For example, when they accuse us of being members of some kind of criminal organization, although they themselves cannot clearly define what this supposed criminal organization actually is, in reality what they mean is Artsakh, Armenia and, more broadly, the Armenian people.
We present various counterarguments to this, and they are unable to respond to them in any way. I personally presented several dozen such counterarguments regarding this so-called criminal group, and they cannot say anything in response.
One of those counterarguments simply paralyzes them. I tell them: if this was a criminal organization, why did your national leader, who is the father of the current president, engage with our Republic? Why did he have direct contact with it and officially conduct negotiations with it? All of this is recorded in documents.
They are left with no answer.
In the appellate court materials, all of that has been removed. Instead, they merely wrote that I said such an approach also undermines the legitimacy of your statehood. They removed the reference to their leader and simply wrote that it undermines legitimacy.
Or, for example, they accuse me of enormous economic abuses, even though I have never been involved in business. I tell them: you have presented it as though British Petroleum belongs to me.
Or they accuse me of having been part of some committee from September 1988 until December 28, 1991, which supposedly made decisions about war and peace.
Fine, I say sarcastically, September 1988 is clear. I had just moved into the 10th grade. Perhaps that is the criterion. But why December 28, 1991, and not the 27th or the 29th? That is completely unclear.
In other words, this is a document that has gone through an extremely low-level form of censorship.
As for our lawyers, they really have filed appeals, even though they have not met with us. A fairly well-argued appeal has been submitted, and I want to thank my lawyer because it identifies all the abuses of the law and violations of international law.
In this country, taking such an approach genuinely requires great courage and is an expression of humanity and professionalism.
Now, effectively, the stage of our appeal before their Supreme Court is beginning. It is obvious what is going to happen. I do not know when they will examine the case, but I know how it will end.
In other words, the same legal, political and moral violations, the same gross abuses, will continue.
But for us, that is not the most important thing. What matters is simply that we pass through this formal legal stage, both for the historical record and for our future steps.
I should also say that in the appellate court materials, the final, 47th volume, consisting of 333 pages, was not provided to us at all.
That volume contains the reasoning for the decision explaining why all of the previous rulings were being left unchanged, and it was not provided at all.
But we are not losing hope. We have no right to lose hope, and we will not. We are standing firm.
We want to thank all of our sisters and brothers who support us, our patriotic compatriots, our non-Armenian sisters and brothers, and people of goodwill around the world, and to say that what you are doing is extremely important.
May God protect all of you.
Thank you.”
