Illegally held Armenian hostage Ruben Vardanyan has filed an application against Azerbaijan with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), formally challenging the legality of his prosecution, conviction, and imprisonment.
Human rights lawyer Siranush Sahakyan, who is representing Vardanyan before the Court, said the application alleges violations of eight articles of the European Convention on Human Rights and presents detailed legal arguments supported by evidence. It asks the Court to find that Azerbaijan violated Vardanyan’s rights under the Convention and to hold the country internationally responsible for those violations.
According to the application, the Azerbaijani court convicted Vardanyan without establishing his individual criminal responsibility through facts or evidence. Instead, it relied on the assertion that the “criminal organization,” referring to the unrecognized Artsakh authorities, had existed since 1988 and concluded that Vardanyan joined it in December 2020, despite the fact that he was living in Moscow at the time.
The application also argues that the court characterized Vardanyan’s acceptance of the civilian post of Artsakh State Minister as the violent seizure of power, his commercial and philanthropic activities as illegal entrepreneurship and financing terrorism, and his entry into Artsakh through the Berdzor Corridor as the illegal crossing of Azerbaijan’s state border.
Sahakyan said Vardanyan did not appeal his conviction within Azerbaijan because he considered the proceedings to be staged and the outcome predetermined, leaving no effective domestic legal remedy.
“It is impossible to protect rights within a system that fundamentally denies the right to a fair trial,” Sahakyan said, explaining that Vardanyan chose to pursue justice through international legal mechanisms instead.
Vardanyan, the former Artsakh State Minister and philanthropist, has been illegally held by Azerbaijan since his abduction at the Berdzor Corridor checkpoint in September 2023. Earlier this year, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison following proceedings that have been widely criticized by international legal experts and human rights advocates as politically motivated and lacking due process.
