After the politically motivated and unprecedentedly cruel judgments of the Armenian prisoners in the Azerbaijani courts, the attention of the international community and the press towards their fate has decreased catastrophically. The closure of the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Baku finally completed the circle of information blockade, leaving dozens of people alone against the punitive system of the neighboring state.
As noted by the secretary of the “I have an honor” faction of the National Assembly Tigran Abrahamyan, previously the information vacuum was not so absolute. Although the Azerbaijani media presented the events in a highly distorted and selective manner, the photos, videos and rare speech fragments of the prisoners of war they published at least conveyed some information about their physical condition. Now that the representatives of the Red Cross have left the capital of Azerbaijan, the isolation of the detained persons has become total.
According to Abrahamyan, the Armenian authorities are not taking any real steps to break this information blockade, because the political agenda and priorities of the ruling power are in a completely different dimension. The politician ends his speech with a strong and unequivocal call for the immediate release of all Armenians suffering in Baku prisons.
The scale of the humanitarian tragedy is highlighted by the latest data from the Baku courtroom. As of today, the Azerbaijani authorities officially confirm the fact of holding only 19 Armenians, while, according to human rights organizations, around 80 people are still in captivity. In February 2026, the fabricated trials against the former military-political leadership of Artsakh ended in Azerbaijan.
They were sentenced to life imprisonment Araik Harutyunyan, Levon Mnatsakanyan, Davit Babayan, Davit Ishkhanyan and: David Manukyan. Due to the age restrictions of the Azerbaijani legislation (which does not allow to assign a life term to persons who have reached the age of 65), former presidents Arkady Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan, as well as former state minister Ruben Vardanyan were sentenced to 20 years in prison. A number of other prisoners of war also received no less severe punishments, being sentenced to 15 to 19 years of imprisonment in strict regime colonies.
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