YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — Ruben Vardanyan, a prominent Armenian businessman and former Nagorno-Karabakh premier captured by Azerbaijan in 2023, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Tuesday, February 17, at the end of a yearlong trial described by him as a “judicial farce.”
A military court in Baku found Vardanyan guilty of a long list of crimes, including “financing terrorism,” in what his family in Armenia called a “judgment against the Armenian people as a whole.”
“From the moment of his arbitrary detention 874 days ago, it became evident that the outcome of this process had been predetermined,” read a statement released by the family.
“Throughout this period, Ruben was denied fundamental guarantees of due process, including meaningful access to legal defense, contact with his international counsel, and the ability of independent media to attend the proceedings,” it said. “The hearings were held behind closed doors and in conditions incompatible with the standards of a fair trial under international law and even Azerbaijani laws.”
Vardanyan, who held the second-highest post in Karabakh’s leadership from November 2022 to February 2023, was arrested at an Azerbaijani checkpoint in the Lachin corridor in September 2023 as he fled the region along with its practically entire ethnic Armenian population.
Seven other former Karabakh Armenian leaders were also arrested during the exodus that followed an Azerbaijani military offensive. Five of them were sentenced to life imprisonment and the two others received 20-year prison sentences on February 5 following a separate trial. Like Vardanyan, they denied similar charges brought against them.
