Azerbaijani court rejects petition by Ruben Vardanyan`s defense  lawyers - Free Armenian Prisoners

ArmInfo. The Azerbaijani court rejected the motions filed by the lawyer of the former Artsakh state minister, philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan. This is stated in a message received by ArmInfo by the Free Armenian Prisoners initiative.

The initiative recalled that on February 10, the fabricated trial of  Vardanyan was resumed in the Baku military court. It is noted that  during the hearing, the state prosecutor continued reading the  extensive "indictment", consisting of many volumes and including  events that have no relation to the activities of Vardanyan himself.

Free Armenian Prisoners emphasizes that in this regard, at the  hearing, Vardanyan submitted a motion to challenge the panel of  judges, substantiating it with a number of facts.

"Thus, the panel failed to take into account the violations of  procedural rights that took place during the investigation stage and  ignored international standards that could have ensured the fairness  of the proceedings. In addition, the materials provided contained  serious translation errors that distorted the course of the  proceedings, which was acknowledged by the court itself. Meanwhile,  according to the source, at the preparatory hearing the court granted  only one motion (for a deferment), while the rest were rejected and  excluded from the decision.

Vardanyan's lawyer supported the motion to challenge the panel of  judges with references to legal norms and personally confirmed the  procedural violations that he witnessed during the preliminary  investigation.  However, the court left this motion without  consideration," the initiative said in a statement.

According to the source, the next hearing in the case of Ruben  Vardanyan is scheduled for February 13.

Earlier the initiative reported that Ruben Vardanyan's lawyer was  able to study only 20% of the court materials, while less than 5% of  the thousands of pages of the indictment and "evidence" that will be  used against the philanthropist were translated orally.

We add that on January 17, under the chairmanship of Judge Zeynal  Agayev, the Baku Military Court began considering the "indictment"  against the former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh. Among the accused are  three former presidents of Nagorno-Karabakh: Arkady Ghukasyan, Bako  Sahakyan and Arayik Harutyunyan. Also appearing before the court will  be former Foreign Minister David Babayan, Parliament Speaker David  Ishkhanyan, former Commander of the Defense Army General Levon  Mnatsakanyan, General David Manukyan and former State Minister Ruben  Vardanyan.

On January 16, Vardanyan made a statement in which he demanded that  he and his lawyer be given the opportunity to fully prepare for their  defense; that all violations and falsifications be eliminated; that  his trial and that of all the other defendants be made public. "I  insist on a maximally open trial with the participation of  international journalists and representatives of humanitarian  organizations. I am convinced that only a real court, not a tribunal,  will help take a step forward on the difficult path of building new  relations between our peoples," he emphasized. 

In conclusion, he demanded that his case be combined with the cases  of the other defendants. "More than 400 volumes of my case out of 422  are episodes of a common case. Separating my case into a separate  proceeding is an artificial and unfounded decision," Vardanyan added.