In an unprecedented escalation of its ongoing crackdown on dissent, Azerbaijani prosecutors have unveiled a sweeping array of 45 new fabricated charges against Armenian humanitarian and political prisoner Ruben Vardanyan, reports Zartonk Media, citing his legal team.
If convicted, Vardanyan faces the grim prospect of life imprisonment. This development comes just one month after Azerbaijan controversially hosted the COP29 climate summit, where its abysmal human rights record drew sharp international criticism.
The bogus charges against Vardanyan fall under 20 different articles of Azerbaijan’s Criminal Code. Highlighting the regime’s desperation to justify its ethnic cleansing of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and the illegal imprisonment of its former leaders, the so-called evidence spans over 25,000 pages across 100 volumes”all written in Azeri. The sheer volume of these documents is a clear tactic to attempt to overwhelm Vardanyan’s defense while concealing the absence of any credible evidence.
Azerbaijan’s regime has deliberately hidden this alleged evidence from both Vardanyan and the public under the pretext that the charges pertain to “national security.” Authorities have refused to provide copies of the evidence to Vardanyan or his legal counsel. Instead, his legal team is only allowed to review the materials at limited times and without a proper translation. To further sabotage Vardanyan’s ability to mount a defense, note-taking is prohibited under the guise of “national security,” exposing the sham nature of the proceedings.
“These charges represent a flagrant violation of Azerbaijan’s obligations under international law,” said Vardanyan’s legal counsel, Jared Genser. “The laundry list of charges”a transparently brazen attempt to blame everything that the Azeri regime did in Nagorno-Karabakh on Ruben”in addition to Azerbaijan’s refusal to provide and make public all of the charges and so-called evidence against Ruben for review, reaffirms that the charges are politically motivated and that the regime knows no objective observer would conclude there is any credible evidence to support its allegations. This approach is clearly designed for Aliyev to justify holding a secret trial before a tribunal that will be neither independent nor impartial.”
Vardanyan’s family has sounded the alarm, warning that the new charges signal an intensifying campaign by President Ilham Aliyev to silence dissenting voices. They are calling on the democratic world to show that such flagrant violations cannot be tolerated and to ensure that international organizations and media are present during the trial.
“The most recent charges against my father are a travesty of justice and retribution for the failures of COP29 upon an innocent scapegoat,” said David Vardanyan, son of Ruben Vardanyan. “Ruben Vardanyan was the State Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh for three months, where he sought to improve the livelihoods of its citizens through meaningful social programs. Sadly, he was rewarded with the threat of life imprisonment by one of the most corrupt regimes on earth. His arrest and these new fallacious charges are a symbol to all Armenians around the world that no one is safe. It has been over two years since our family has been able to see Ruben. We are afraid that we might not be able to see him again if the democratic world does not act to put an end to this nonsense.”
Vardanyan has already spent more than a year in illegal detention under Azerbaijan’s authoritarian regime. This latest escalation marks a troubling new low in President Ilham Aliyev’s dictatorship. Freedom House currently gives Azerbaijan a “global freedom score” of seven out of one hundred, placing it behind countries such as Somalia, Myanmar, and Venezuela in terms of political and civil liberties. The latest developments underscore the systemic erosion of fundamental freedoms in Azerbaijan and highlight the regime’s ongoing efforts to silence dissent and consolidate power.
Last September, armed forces of the Azerbaijani government launched a brutal invasion of the Republic of Artsakh, driving out 120,000 Armenian Christians in an act of ethnic cleansing. During the mass exodus of refugees, Vardanyan and seven other former officials were arrested and now face bogus and politically motivated charges.
A former State Minister of the Artsakh Republic from November 2022 to February 2023, Vardanyan has been imprisoned in Baku under conditions that violate international law. His political show trial”which has already been delayed several times”is expected to fall far short of international legal standards. The regime’s refusal to grant access to independent observers underscores the illegitimacy of the process and the blatant disregard for the rule of law.
