News - Judicial farce in Karabakh resident Vagif Khachatryan’s ‘criminal case’ continues in Azerbaijan

The judicial farce in the "criminal case" against Nagorno-Karabakh resident Vagif Khachatryan continues in Azerbaijan capital Baku. The next court session into this will be presided over by Zeynal Aghayev, Chief Judge of the Baku Military Court, the Azerbaijani media report. The reporter in the case is Judge Jamal Ramazanov. Vagif Khachatryan, a participant in the first Nagorno-Karabakh war in the early 1990s, was abducted by the Azerbaijanis this summer while crossing the Lachin corridor into Armenia—and being accompanied by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The Azerbaijani authorities accuse Khachatryan of committing serious crimes for participating in combat operations. Despite these obviously illegal actions by Azerbaijan, including the abducting of a person under the protection of the ICRC, Khachatryan was not only not released, but is standing trial. A total of 59 people are considered "victims" in this fabricated case, and all of them have "recognized" Khachatryan and spoken about his "crimes." Vagif Khachatryan, however, has pleaded not guilty to the charge against him, and stated that he did not participate in any crimes against Azerbaijanis.