News - International law expert: Azerbaijan is violating detained Karabakh ex-officials’ rights

I rule out the free expression of will in the interviews given by the former military and political leadership of Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] illegally being held in Baku. International law expert and attorney Siranush Sahakyan, president of the International and Comparative Law Center, stated this in an interview with Armenian News-NEWS.am. "Here, it is very important to clarify the issue of whether the mentioned persons are giving interviews with free expression of will and their wishes. If the wish and initiative is not from these officials, then we are dealing with many violations of rights. It is clear that they hardly had great motivations, wishes, and dreams to give interviews while being in custody in Azerbaijan. I rule out the free expression of will, all of them are under real and immediate threats to their lives and understandably, they are forced to participate in interviews," Sahakyan noted. According to her, from the point of view of human rights, we are dealing with coercion, which can also have psychological manifestations. "When there is no personal wish, but a person's image, voice, and movement are used, interfering with his right to the privacy of his private life, it is a violation. And thirdly, these officials are forced to give wording that is not consistent with their thoughts, conscience, and views, including political [ones]. At least from the point of view of their activities, we know that they acted in the interest of the self-determination of Artsakh, and I am sure that other points of view will be heard in the interviews. Here we also face violations of the right to freedom of speech, as they will be forced to express views against their convictions and ideology," Sahakyan noted. She stressed that their will is limited, and they participate in these interviews through coercion. "There is a clear violation of the right to freedom of speech here. When a person does not want to express any point of view, but is forced to, then inevitably, there are violations of the right to freedom of speech and the right to privacy. But the most important thing is that these violations are the result of inhumane treatment, coercion, pressure, which can have psychological manifestations. And I can say, based on our experience, that we have many such documented cases when, for example, they poured fuel on a person before the interview and threatened, with a match in the hand, to burn [him] if the person did not utter the noted words. And similar measures were used against innocent abducted [Armenian] civilians, military personnel, prisoners of war, even persons in vulnerable groups," Sahakyan said. When asked what Armenia should do in this case, Sahakyan respond: "In terms of the legal process here, the complaints should be filled, and these new manifestations of violations of the law should be reflected in the complaints. And of course, human rights violations cannot be prevented or excluded in Azerbaijan. The only real support is to achieve their release through active diplomatic and political work. Armenia should be very intensive in order to ensure the return [of these Armenians from Azerbaijan] in the shortest possible time through political, diplomatic means. But here, to be honest, the developments and results are not particularly encouraging.” Azerbaijani state media are preparing a “documentary,” in which they will present interviews with the captured former military and political leadership of Artsakh. The Azerbaijanis interviewed General Levon Mnatsakanyan, the former commander of the Artsakh Defense Army, and Arayik Harutyunyan, the former President of Artsakh, who are illegally held in a Baku prison. Over the weekend, Azerbaijani media publicized footage from the interview with Harutyunyan, and recently, footage from the interview with Mnatsakanyan was posted on social media. It is not known under what conditions the Azerbaijanis forced these former leaders of Artsakh to speak. So far, it is not clear whether this “documentary” has interviews also with other senior officials of Artsakh being held in Baku. It is said that it will be shown on March 28.