Ruben Vardanyan ‘Denied Access To Azeri Lawyer’

In a statement released on Friday, Veronika Zonabend also said that Azerbaijan’s human rights ombudswoman has ignored her repeated appeals to help an international delegation of women visit the prisoners and hand them letters, parcels and other essential items from their families.

“Unfortunately, we have not yet received a reply,” she said. “In the meantime, reports appeared in Azerbaijani media suggesting that I could be arrested if I came to the country.”

“We are also concerned that since August 25, Ruben’s local lawyer has been denied access to him. We hope this issue will be resolved,” added Zonabend.

Vardanyan urged the Azerbaijani official, Sabina Aliyeva, in September to visit the prisoners and address what he called “violations of their rights” guaranteed by Azerbaijani law. In an audio statement communicated to his family by phone, he said that they are denied adequate medical care and are unable to make weekly phone calls to their families. Neither Aliyeva nor her office has publicly reacted to the appeal so far.

Eight of the prisoners, including Vardanyan, are former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh who were captured right after the September 2023 Azerbaijani offensive that restored Baku’s full control over Karabakh and forced the region’s Armenian population to flee to Armenia. They received lengthy prison sentences in February at the end of what Armenian lawyers and human rights activists see as sham trials. They all deny a long list of war crimes charges levelled against them.

Prospects for the prisoners’ release have remained uncertain even after the initialing of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty in Washington in August 2025. Neither the treaty nor a separate declaration signed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian at the White House commits Baku to freeing them.

Pashinian’s government is regularly accused by its domestic critics of doing little to secure the prisoners’ release. It denies the accusations. Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said last month that Yerevan hopes to have them eventually freed through “our dialogue with Azerbaijan.”

Zonabend complained in her statement that the Armenian Foreign Ministry has ignored he requests of “diplomatic assistance” for her delegation’s visit to the Azerbaijani prison where the Armenian captives are held.

“Since [human rights lawyer] Siranush Sahakian and I met at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 17 August, a responsible official has still not been named, and our written request has so far gone unanswered,” she said.