Armenian Ombudsperson reacts to Azerbaijani pseudo court verdict  against Vagif Khachatryan

ArmInfo. Armenia's Ombudsperson Anahit Minasyan reacted to the verdict of the Azerbaijani pseudo court against Vagif Khachatryan, who was kidnapped on July 29 at an illegal checkpoint in the Kashatagh (Lachin)  corridor.

"Vagif Khachatryan, abducted by Azerbaijani forces in the Lachin  Corridor, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in Baku, without  observing the international legal standards and guarantees related to  human rights. International human rights organizations should respond  immediately," Minasyan wrote on her X page (formerly Twitter).

As ArmInfo earlier reported, the puppet Baku court sentenced Artsakh  resident Vagif Khachatryan to 15 years in prison for crimes that he  did not commit.  Let us recall that Khachatryan was abducted on July  29 of this year from an illegal checkpoint on the Stepanakert-Goris  road, when, accompanied by the ICRC, he was heading to Yerevan for  treatment. A few days after the kidnapping, the Azerbaijani  Prosecutor General's Office cofirmed the detention of Khachatryan,  accusing him of war crimes allegedly committed in 1991. The Armenian  Foreign Ministry qualified the actions of the Azerbaijanis as a  kidnapping, and Human Rights Defender Anahit Manasyan described the  incident as a gross violation of international humanitarian law,  since Vagif Khachatryan was under the protection of the ICRC.

On July 30, Armenia's representative for international legal matters,  Yeghishe Kirakosyan, reported that an application to protect the  rights of Vagif Khachatryan was submitted to the European Court of  Human Rights with a requirement to apply an interim measure to  Azerbaijan.

The so-called trial of Khachatryan started on October 13. Naturally,  Khachatryan did not plead guilty to the acts that the Azerbaijani  puppet court imagined. Let us also add that this is not the first  time that the enemy side comes up with fabricated crimes, for which  they sentence the kidnapped Armenians to long terms. Of course, this  sentence can be equated to life imprisonment, taking into account the  health problems that Khachatryan has.