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Ruben Vardanyan will spend another five months in pre-trial detention facility

Today, the Azerbaijani court again extended the illegal arrest of Ruben Vardanyan. His team believes this decision to be illegal and unjustified. The representative of Ruben’s defense in Russia, Victoria Burkovskaya, reminded that the social entrepreneur has been in custody for more than seven months, although his guilt has not been proven by the court.

“Every time a petition is filed with the court to extend Ruben Vardanyan’s detention, the investigator indicates that he has not had time to complete the investigation of the criminal case and what exactly he intends to do in the coming months. However, the answers are usually formal. The same general words are repeated. At the same time, the person whose guilt has not been proven by the court continues to remain behind bars.

Now we do not understand clearly when the court hearing will take place. According to the Code of Criminal Procedure, the court may be scheduled in another 6-9 months. By that point, Ruben Vardanyan will have been in custody for over a year. The prolongation of the preliminary investigation with the detention of the defendant in the pre-trial detention facility violates the rights of our defendant.

In addition, it is not clear to us whether the court will be public. Meanwhile, the open court hearing of our client’s case is the only way to ensure the legality of criminal proceedings. We insist that Ruben Vardanyan’s trial must be exactly like this,” said Victoria Burkovskaya.