ArmInfo. The Azerbaijani puppet court extended the illegal arrest of Ruben Vardanyan for another 5 months. Vardanyan's defense report notes that this decision is illegal and unfounded.
"Our client has been in a pre-trial detention center for more than seven months - he was detained on September 27, 2023. Every time the investigator submits a petition to the court to extend the period of detention of Ruben Vardanyan, he indicates that he did not have time to complete the investigation of the criminal case and what exactly he is going to do in the coming months. However, the answers, as a rule, are of a formal nature: they repeat the same general words, while the person whose guilt has not been proven by the court continues to remain behind bars.
Now we do not have a clear understanding of when the court hearing will take place. According to the Criminal Procedure Code, a trial can be scheduled in another 6-9 months. By this time, Ruben Vardanyan will have been in custody for more than a year. Delaying the preliminary investigation while keeping the accused in a pre-trial detention center violates the rights of our client.
In addition, it is unclear to us whether the trial will be public. Meanwhile, an open trial of our client's case is the only way to ensure the legality of the criminal process. We insist that the trial of Ruben Vardanyan should be exactly like this," said Vardanyan's Russian lawyer Victoria Burkovskaya. Previously, the Azerbaijani court extended the illegal arrest of 7 more former and current representatives of the military-political leadership of Artsakh. These are former Presidents of Artsakh Arkady Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, Arayik Harutyunyan, former Foreign Minister David Babayan, as well as Speaker of Parliament David Ishkhanyan, ex-commander of the Artsakh Defense Army, General Levon Mnatsakanyan, General David Manukyan. They were taken hostage after Azerbaijan's large-scale aggression against Artsakh, initiated on September 19, 2023.