Thursday, August 3 2023 11:03

ArmInfo.Siranush Sahakyan, the representative of the interests of Armenian prisoners of war in  the European Court of Human Rights, head of the International and  Comparative Law Center considers that the kidnapping of Artsakh  citizen Vagif Khachatryan by Azerbaijan is extraordinary from the  point of view of human rights. Sahakyan stated at a meeting with  journalists on August 2.

Sahakyan ruled out the possibility of a fair trial against  Khachatryan in Azerbaijan. In addition, she expressed fears about the  possibility of torture against him. The representative of the  interests of the Armenian prisoners of war in the ECHR also did not  rule out the possibility that Azerbaijan used the International  Committee of the Red Cross to kidnap Vagif Khachatryan. When  transporting patients from Artsakh to Armenia, having seen the name  of Vagif Khachatryan in the list of patients, Azerbaijan had to  inform the ICRC that there was a person wanted for a crime, who,  being within the jurisdiction of Azerbaijan, could be detained.  "Thus, Azerbaijan would protect the humanitarian mandate of the ICRC. 

And the Red Cross had to notify family members about this. More than  sure that such information was not provided. Azerbaijan did not  provide such information, using it for its own purposes. They took  the path of deceit>, she said.

According to Sahakyan, the incident is difficult to fit into the  logic of international law. <International law certainly has criminal  cooperation mechanisms that are very important and help bring  criminals to justice and prevent them from evading justice. For this,  international law provides for instruments of transfer, extradition,  the addressees of which may be states.

If Azerbaijan believed that Vagif Khachatryan was a criminal, it  could bring him to justice with the assistance of international  criminal law with the assistance of the authorities of Artsakh,  Armenia, the Russian Federation or Interpol. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan  did not give any official comment that this person is on the  international wanted list. According to Sahakyan, one should not  expect fair trials in the case of Vagif Khachatryan, since he was  initially transferred under the territorial jurisdiction of  Azerbaijan in violation of human rights and its guarantees.

Over the past couple of days, two residents of Nagorno-Karabakh were  detained by the Azerbaijani authorities at once. 

In particular, on July 29, they blocked the transfer of 68-year-old  Vagif Khachatryan, who was accompanied by his daughter, to one of the  medical institutions of Armenia through the Lachin Corridor by an  ICRC car.

For several hours nothing was known of his fate. Later, the  Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan announced the detention of  Khachatryan, accusing him of war crimes allegedly committed in 1991.  And already yesterday, it became known about the detention of Artsakh  citizen Rashid Beglaryan, who, according to the Armenian side, got  lost in the territory controlled by Azerbaijan.