Complaint in Ruben Vardanyan’s case filed with the ECHR

Siranush Sahakyan, representative of the interests of Armenian prisoners, has filed a complaint concerning the case of Ruben Vardanyan, former State Minister of Artsakh, who is being unlawfully held in detention in Baku.

According to her, the complaint details violations of eight articles of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The document contains legal and factual arguments confirming the violations committed. “The verdict did not present any facts or evidence confirming Vardanyan’s personal guilt. Instead, the court concluded that a ‘criminal organization’, meaning the leadership of the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh. had been operating in Nagorno-Karabakh since 1988, and that Vardanyan joined this ‘organization’ in December 2020, despite the fact that he was living in Moscow at the time,” she noted.

Sahakyan emphasized that the court classified Vardanyan’s holding of a civilian administrative position as a violent seizure of power, his commercial and charitable activities as illegal entrepreneurship and financing of terrorism, and his entry into Nagorno-Karabakh via the Lachin Corridor as an illegal crossing of Azerbaijan’s state border.

“Vardanyan did not appeal the verdict, considering the trial to be staged and predetermined, and all domestic legal remedies to be ineffective. Indeed, it is impossible to defend one’s rights within a system that, by its very nature, denies the right to a fair trial. Under these circumstances, Ruben Vardanyan decided to seek justice through international legal mechanisms,” she added.