Prisoners — Attorney Siranush Sahakyan

Armenia & Karabakh International Human Rights Political Prisoners

Lawyer Says Armenian Prisoners in Azerbaijan Kept in ‘Absolute Isolation’

September 8, 2026

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The Armenian Mirror-Spectator

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By Naira Bulghadarian

YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan are being kept in “absolute isolation” from the outside world, with their only contact with it coming through monitored telephone calls, according to Siranush Sahakyan, a Yerevan-based lawyer representing the prisoners at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

“There is no physical contact with the outside world,” Sahakyan said at a news conference on September 4. “They do not see their families, consular officials, independent doctors, lawyers or representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross.”

She said that while monitored telephone calls were allowed, Azerbaijani authorities could forcefully terminate them at any time.

Twenty Armenians are currently imprisoned in Azerbaijan, including eight former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh who were detained after Baku’s military recapture of the breakaway region in 2023.

All of them have been tried and convicted on various charges related to alleged war crimes, with prison terms ranging from 20 years to life. Human rights lawyers are now seeking to defend their rights before the ECHR.

Sahakyan also mentioned complaints among Armenian prisoners about inadequate medical care provided to them in Azerbaijan.

“Basically, medication may be provided in extreme situations to alleviate certain symptoms, but no measures are being taken to treat existing illnesses or prevent their deterioration,” she said.

“According to our information, medical assistance and treatment are not being properly organized for the Armenian prisoners,” Sahakyan added, stressing that she has no independent assessment of their actual health condition.

Sahakyan also spoke in detail about the case against Ruben Vardanyan, an Armenian-born businessman who briefly served as Karabakh premier in late 2022 and early 2023.

Vardanyan, 58, was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a military court in Baku in February after being convicted on multiple charges, including financing terrorism, creating and supplying illegal armed groups, committing violations of the laws and customs of war, illegally crossing a state border and other offenses. He denies the charges, calling his conviction baseless.

The lawyer said the individual charges brought against Vardanyan were not substantiated by any evidence.

The Armenian Mirror-Spectator

Topics: Human Rights, Political Prisoners

People: Siranush Sahakyan

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She said she had examined details of Vardanyan’s verdict and found no evidence of any specific order he allegedly gave to carry out killings, torture or displacement, or attacks on civilians.

“His involvement in the crimes attributed to him has not been established,” Sahakyan said, adding that there was “not a single piece of evidence, witness or victim who said that Vardanyan had committed a crime that harmed any Azerbaijani.”

Among the dozens of crimes attributed to Vardanyan, Baku has also accused him of financing terrorism in connection with his role as a co-founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, which has annually awarded individuals for their humanitarian work on behalf of survivors of the 1915 Armenian Genocide.

In particular, Sahakyan said, in the case files Vardanyan was portrayed as a member of a criminal organization as one of the awards was described as financing for Kurdish-origin relatives of an awardee.

Sahakyan also alleged that Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan have been subjected to targeted actions involving religious symbols.

She said international reports had documented a case in which a cross-shaped tattoo was removed from an Armenian prisoner’s skin by burning, describing the act as torture. She also said that Christian Armenian prisoners had been denied access to the Bible and that there had been cases in which they were forced to read the Quran.

Azerbaijani officials did not immediately respond to the attorney’s allegations of ill-treatment of Armenian prisoners, which RFE/RL’s Armenian Service could not independently verify.

Armenian authorities say they continue to work for the release and repatriation of Armenian prisoners.

At a press briefing on September 3, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan confirmed that the issue was discussed during his latest meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that took place on the margins of a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on August 31.

“Naturally, issues related to prisoners and missing persons were part of the discussions,” Pashinyan said, declining to provide details. He added that publicly discussing such matters “could not in any way be beneficial.”

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