In the case of Ruben Vardanyan, a complaint was submitted to the European Court of Human Rights. We learn about this from the statement of Siranush Sahakyan, lawyer, head of the Center for International and Comparative Law, representative of the interests of Armenian prisoners at the ECHR, in which, in particular, it is said:
“S. year On July 19, I submitted an official complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) regarding the case of Ruben Vardanyan, a citizen of Armenia, who is currently being held in the Umbak Penitentiary Complex of Azerbaijan. I will defend the interests of Ruben Vardanyan at the ECHR.
The complaint details the violations of eight articles of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the Convention) and provides justifications for them.
The verdict in the case of Ruben Vardanyan was published by the Baku military court on February 17, 2026, sentencing him to 20 years in prison. The court did not read the verdict in its entirety.
Later, from the verdict made available through the family, it became clear that Vardanyan was found “guilty” on 41 counts based on 21 articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
In the verdict, Vardanyan’s individual guilt was not substantiated by facts or evidence. Instead, the court concluded that a “criminal community,” the unrecognized administration of Artsakh, had been operating in Nagorno-Karabakh since 1988, and that Vardanyan joined that “community” in December 2020, even though he was living in Moscow at the time.
The court assessed Vardanyan’s acceptance of a civil administrative position as a forcible usurpation of power, his commercial and charitable activities as illegal entrepreneurship and financing of terrorism, and entering Nagorno Karabakh through the Lachin Corridor as illegally crossing the state border of Azerbaijan.
Vardanyan did not appeal the verdict, because he considered that the trial was staged and predetermined, and all domestic measures were ineffective.
In fact, it is impossible to protect rights in a system that denies the right to a fair trial from the start. Therefore, Ruben Vardanyan decided to continue the fight for justice through international legal mechanisms.”
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