A complaint against the verdict against Karabakh leaders has been filed with a Baku court.
The Baku Court of Appeals has accepted for review the appeal against the sentences of former Nagorno-Karabakh leaders sentenced to life and long prison terms.
As reported by the Caucasian Knot, on February 5, former Nagorno-Karabakh President Arayik Harutyunyan, Foreign Minister David Babayan, former Defense Army Commander Levon Mnatsakanyan and his deputy David Manukyan, and former Parliament Speaker David Ishkhanyan were sentenced to life imprisonment by a military court in Baku. That same day, 10 more defendants were sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 15 to 20 years. All defendants denied guilt.
Fifteen former Karabakh officials, including former presidents Arayik Harutyunyan, Bako Sahakyan, and Arkady Ghukasyan, as well as parliament speaker David Ishkhanyan, were detained in the fall of 2023. They were charged under 20 articles of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code, including war crimes, according to the Caucasian Knot report "Key Points on the Sentences of Former Nagorno-Karabakh Leaders".
An appeal against the sentence of Arayik Harutyunyan, David Babayan, Arkady Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, David Ishkhanyan, Levon Mnatsakanyan, and others convicted in this case has been submitted for consideration, APA reports today.
The case will be heard in the Baku Court of Appeal, chaired by Judge Elmar Rahimov, APA reports today. Report.
Vardanyan Denies Legitimacy of Baku Trial
On February 17, the Baku Military Court sentenced former Nagorno-Karabakh State Minister Ruben Vardanyan, whose case was heard separately, to 20 years in prison. The defendant, who headed the Karabakh government for only a few months during the blockade of the Lachin Corridor, was found guilty of war crimes. Vardanyan declined to appeal, explaining that he does not recognize the verdict as an act of justice.
Vardanyan's decision to decline the appeal does not mean he accepts the verdict or renounces his defense, his relatives emphasized. They explained that this is "a deliberate refusal to legitimize a process that lacked the hallmarks of justice from the outset." "Filing an appeal under these circumstances would mean admitting that the trial somehow met the minimum requirements of law. This is far from the case," the convicted man's family stated.
The court has been hearing Vardanyan's case since January 2025. . At the final stage of the trial, Ruben Vardanyan forbade his lawyer from speaking and delivered the closing speech himself, quoting classic Azerbaijani poetry. He explained his position by saying that "this is not a trial, but a courtroom," where "there was no opportunity for a normal trial."
On September 19-20, 2023, Azerbaijan launched large-scale military operations and took control of the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which began a mass exodus of the Armenian population. By October 7, 2023, 100,632 internally displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh had arrived in Armenia, and by September 2024, only 14 Armenians remained in the region. The "Caucasian Knot" has prepared a report entitled "The Beginning and End of the Unrecognized Republic of Artsakh".
Ruben Vardanyan only announced in September 2022 his decision to renounce his Russian citizenship and move to Nagorno-Karabakh to support local residents "in a grave psychological state." In October 2022, Vardanyan agreed to head the government, and became state minister on November 4, 2022. However, on February 23, 2023, Vardanyan was dismissed after serving as state minister for less than four months. During this period, Vardanyan was forced to seek solutions to the problems faced by the residents of Nagorno-Karabakh due to the blockade of the Lachin corridor.
Later, in a Baku court, Vardanyan's defense pointed out that the prosecution accused him of events that occurred, among other things, many years before his arrival in Karabakh. Azerbaijani citizens recognized as victims also testified in court about this. In particular, they spoke about the fighting in the Kelbajar and Zangilan districts, which came under Baku's control back in 2020.
The "Caucasian Knot" prepared a report "Vardanyan and 15 Karabakh leaders: the main points about the courts in Baku".