ArmInfo. Wife of Acting Armenian Prime Minister Anna Hakobyan visited the family of Karen Ghazaryan, who is in captivity in Azerbaijan. This was announced by the press secretary of Anna Hakobyan.
During the visit, Karen's mother noted that she wanted to send some clothes to her son besides the letter. Anna Hakobyan noted that the International Committee of the Red Cross should find appropriate solutions on this issue. She noted that Karen had health problems, and every day of his being in captivity threatened his health and life. "We also have no clear information about how they treat him there," Hakobyan said.
She told Ghazaryan's parents that recently Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan addressed the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as the CoE Commissioner for Human Rights, on Karen Ghazaryan's issue. Hakobyan expressed the hope that these international structures will take concrete steps. According to her, the case of Karen Ghazaryan at the ECHR is at the stage of waiting for clarification from Azerbaijan. "Lawyers believe that we have strong positions, at least considering that Ghazaryan is not a saboteur or a terrorist. We presented evidence of health problems. In my opinion, if all these structures work, and do what they should do, then it is impossible not to reach a solution in this matter at a certain stage".
On the question of whether there are methods of coercion for exchange, Hakobyan noted that "we have appealed in the ECHR on violation of a number of paragraphs of the Convention on Human Rights in the case of Karen Ghazaryan. Based on the confidence of our lawyers, the Armenian side is likely to win. This implies specific sanctions against Azerbaijan. I think this is undesirable for the Azerbaijani side. Sanctions, which will become a serious tool in our hands for the return of Karen Ghazaryan, "she said. When asked whether there was a proposal from the Azerbaijani side about the exchange of prisoners, Hakobyan noted that she was not aware of this. "I can guess what soil the Azerbaijani side is probing. But as far as I know there is no international experience in exchanging war criminals for civilians. In this case, such intentions can be called cynical. People who serve their sentence in Armenia have been sentenced for 16 years for killing a child. T is strange to raise such an issue. Especially considering the fact that there was already a sad story of the glorification of such criminals (advancement in the rank of Ramil Safarov, who hacked Gurgen Margaryan with an ax)'". To recall, Karen Ghazaryan, a resident of the village of Berdavan, has been in Azerbaijani captivity since July of this year. Yesterday his trial began.