Azerbaijani puppet court extends illegal arrest of Ruben Vardanyan  for another 5 months

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.