Azerbaijani puppet court extends illegal arrest of Ruben Vardanyan  for another 5 months

ArmInfo. The Azerbaijani puppet court extended the illegal arrest of Ruben Vardanyan for another 5 

months. Vardanyan's defense report notes that this decision is illegal and 

unfounded.

"Our client has been in a pre-trial detention center for more than 

seven months - he was detained on September 27, 2023. Every time the 

investigator submits a petition to the court to extend the period of 

detention of Ruben Vardanyan, he indicates that he did not have time 

to complete the investigation of the criminal case and what exactly 

he is going to do in the coming months. However, the answers, as a 

rule, are of a formal nature: they repeat the same general words, 

while the person whose guilt has not been proven by the court 

continues to remain behind bars.

Now we do not have a clear understanding of when the court hearing 

will take place. According to the Criminal Procedure Code, a trial 

can be scheduled in another 6-9 months. By this time, Ruben Vardanyan 

will have been in custody for more than a year. Delaying the 

preliminary investigation while keeping the accused in a pre-trial 

detention center violates the rights of our client.

In addition, it is unclear to us whether the trial will be public. 

Meanwhile, an open trial of our client's case is the only way to 

ensure the legality of the criminal process. We insist that the trial 

of Ruben Vardanyan should be exactly like this," said Vardanyan's 

Russian lawyer Victoria Burkovskaya.  Previously, the Azerbaijani 

court extended the illegal arrest of 7 more former and current 

representatives of the military-political leadership of Artsakh. 

These are former Presidents of Artsakh Arkady Ghukasyan, Bako 

Sahakyan, Arayik Harutyunyan, former Foreign Minister David Babayan, 

as well as Speaker of Parliament David Ishkhanyan, ex-commander of 

the Artsakh Defense Army, General Levon Mnatsakanyan, General David 

Manukyan. They were taken hostage after Azerbaijan's large-scale 

aggression against Artsakh, initiated on September 19, 2023.