“The case of Ruben Vardanyan, a philanthropist and former state minister of the unrecognized republic, is being considered in a military court. Vardanyan, who has spent almost 500 days in Baku pre-trial detention center, was given only 9 days to get acquainted with 422 volumes of the case.

If it seems to some that the surrealism of the situation ends here, it does not: things are even worse. Eva Merkacheva, a member of the Human Rights Council, recently stated that Ruben Vardanyan is being forced to change his own lawyer for a state one.

Let me remind you that after Vardanyan’s illegal detention in the Lachin corridor on September 27, 2023, Azerbaijan accused the philanthropist of financing terrorism, creating illegal armed formations and illegally crossing the state border of Azerbaijan. But over time, the number of charges increased 14 times to 42 articles. It is worth noting separately that out of 422 volumes of the case, only six are related to Vardanyan, and all the others examine in detail the history of Nagorno-Karabakh since 1987 (Ruben Vardanyan was 19 years old at that time, he was studying at Moscow State University).

All of the above turns the trial of the man nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize into a farce. Or Kafka’s “The Trial”. In civilized countries, of which Azerbaijan sees itself as an integral part, such work of the legal system would be simply impossible to imagine”.