Ruben Vardanyan, a former minister in the government of Nagorno Karabakh/Artsakh, goes on trial in Baku on January 17. Vardanyan, who has been held hostage since Azerbaijan invaded Nagorno Karabakh in September 2023, could face life in jail after new charges were brought against him.
Ruben Vardanyan was captured in September 2023. freearmenianprisoners.com
Vardanyan, a businessman and philanthropist who served as minister of state from November 2022 until February 2023, is one of eight former government officials from the Republic of Artsakh to be illegally detained in Azerbaijan.
Now, 15 months after his arrest, Azerbaijani media are reporting that the case against Vardanyan has been completed. He will appear before the Baku Military Court on January 17 for a preparatory hearing in the criminal case against him.
Captured by Azerbaijani forces during the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno Karabakh, Vardanyan faced terrorism-related charges from the outset. But in December 2024, Baku prosecutors filed dozens of new charges, reported to include “separatism” and embezzlement, against the former minister.
“If convicted, Vardanyan faces the grim prospect of life imprisonment,” his family and lawyer said in a statement following the announcement, quoted by Armenian media. According to the statement, the new charges fell under 20 different articles of Azerbaijan’s Criminal Code.
“The fabricated evidence is presented in more than 25,000 pages across 100 volumes, all written in Azeri,” the statement said. However, Vardanyan’s lawyers do not have access to the documentation.
For his part, David, Vardanyan’s son, expressed anxiety that the family “might not be able to see him again if the democratic world does not act to put an end to this nonsense.”
Between 2020 and 2023, Azerbaijan repeatedly attacked Nagorno Karabakh, finally displacing its entire population in an armed invasion in September 2023, and bringing its millennia-old Armenian Christian presence to an end.
Vardanyan moved to the Nagorno Karabakh in September 2022 after renouncing his Russian citizenship.
“This was a difficult but right decision,” he said at the time. “Using myself as an example, I want to show how important Artsakh is for me and for all of us.”
Subsequently, President Arayik Harutunyan asked Vardanyan to become Artsakh’s state minister. This was in November 2022, just before Azerbaijan began its final nine-month blockade of the region.
Vardanyan’s period of detention, and that of the other political hostages, has been repeatedly extended and the start of trial proceedings delayed.
In a post on X last April, his family said Vardanyan and his counsel had made repeated requests for a fair and transparent trial held in a timely manner.
It came as Vardanyan staged a hunger strike in protest at the inhumane conditions of his detention after his trial, slated to begin in January 2024, was delayed without explanation. But the hunger strike only led to a worsening of conditions. As a result, he was held in solitary confinement, denied access to reading materials and prevented from contacting his family by telephone, in violation of international norms.
Vardanyan’s lawyer, Jared Genser, recalled that the legal team had submitted a complaint to the United Nations special rapporteur on torture over the abuse he had suffered.
“While the current conditions are less severe, his detention remains deeply unjust and psychologically damaging,” Genser added.
In addition to Vardanyan, seven current or former members of the Nagorno Karabakh government are also awaiting trial. They are being held alongside a number of civilian hostages and prisoners of war.
Azerbaijan is confirmed to be holding at least 23 Armenian hostages but the true figure may be as high as 100. CSI is campaigning for their release.
Parallel to Vardanyan’s trial, a collective trial of 15 Armenian detainees is also set to commence on January 17 OC Media, a news platform covering the Caucasus region, reported, quoting the Azerbaijani state news agency.
The 15 include three former presidents of Artsakh – Arayik Harutyunyan, Arkadi Ghukasyan and Babo Sahakyan – as well as other leading officials, prisoners of war, and a civilian who was abducted by Azerbaijani forces during their ethnic cleansing operation.
These 15 face a huge range of charges, from “slavery” to “genocide.” Vardanyan’s case is being handled separately after the filing of 45 new charges against him in December.
“Azerbaijan’s show trials and the raft of trumped-up and fabricated charges against these men are intended to legitimate the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno Karabakh after the fact.” Joel Veldkamp
“Unlike their captors, the officials on trial in Baku served in a freely elected government, chosen by Armenians exercising their right to self-determination in their homeland,” commented Joel Veldkamp, Christian Solidarity International’s Director for Public Advocacy.
“Azerbaijan’s show trials and the raft of trumped-up and fabricated charges against these men are intended to legitimate the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno Karabakh after the fact.”
“It is long past time for the United States, the European Union, and other allies of Azerbaijan to insist that these men be released and returned to their families,” he concluded.
Statement by Ruben Vardanyan published on X, January 16, 2024
