International Comparative Law Center head Siranush Sahakyan stated during a discussion on the rights of Armenian captives and hostages held in Baku that Azerbaijan officially acknowledges the detention of only 23 Armenians.
According to her, there are several dozen forcibly disappeared captives, Panorama.am reported.
“Today, it is announced that there are 23 Armenian captives in Baku. This is because the Azerbaijani side officially confirms that 23 individuals are being held in Azerbaijan,” Sahakyan said.
She emphasized that this does not mean there are only that many captives. The human rights defender highlighted evidence of Azerbaijani war crimes.
“There have been developments revealing war crimes, in particular the killing of captives. In some cases, bodies of executed captives were returned to the Armenian side.
Secondly, captives have forcibly disappeared. After their capture, certain developments occurred, and we lost all information about these people. The Azerbaijani side denies any connection to the forcibly disappeared captives and refuses to provide information.
There is no independent international body capable of locating these missing captives, verifying whether they are alive, or transmitting information,” she stated.
Sahakyan added that fact-finding work by rights defenders has already documented at least 80 cases of enforced disappearance.
“Often, the figure of 80 persons is mentioned. These are cases verified during fact-finding activities by rights defenders. This number can never be considered exhaustive. At least 80 cases are documented, but the actual number may be much higher,” she said.
Currently, Sahakyan explained, of the 23 captives held in Azerbaijan, eight are representatives of Artsakh’s former military-political leadership, while five were captured during the 2020 war.
“Azerbaijan is unlawfully holding both those captured during the 44-day war of 2020 and those detained in 2023,” the rights defender added.
She also noted that, according to available information, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture recently visited Azerbaijan.
“We do not rule out that some Armenians were granted brief visits during these inspections. I will refrain from giving details for now. We will make a statement in the future,” Sahakyan said.
In September 2023, after a nine-month blockade and the ethnic cleansing of the Armenian population of Artsakh, Azerbaijan captured former Artsakh presidents Arkadi Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, and Arayik Harutyunyan, as well as former state minister Ruben Vardanyan, foreign minister David Babayan, and other former officials. The fabricated charges against them may result in life imprisonment. On January 17, a show trial began in Baku against Artsakh’s former leaders.
