Siranush Saakyan about court hearings against former leaders of Artsakh: Armenia must achieve international concern
Siranush Saakyan, the representative of interests of Armenian prisoners of war in the European Court of Human Rights, has stated the need to ensure foreign presence at court hearings in the case of Ruben Vardanyan and other former leaders of Artsakh. In her opinion, this will create a counterbalance to the pressure from official Baku and will allow to document inevitable violations.
At the end of June, Kamran Aliyev, the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan, announced that investigation is completed and cases of 15 former state officials of Artsakh were sent to court hearings. Saakyan said that investigation in Azerbaijan was nontransparent: the government staff has provided information on a case-by-case basis.
“At the same time, that is important from the point of view of defense for these people, documents and data were kept secret and it certainly influences the right to effective legal defense. This proves the assumption that cases are fabricated: there are no factual and legal basis and we are dealing with legal proceedings based on political motivation and political put-up job”, – Saakyan said.