On January 21, the next hearing commenced in Baku in the criminal case regarding crimes against peace and humanity, war crimes, including the conduct of aggressive warfare, genocide, forced population relocation, persecution, torture, robbery, and other illegal acts committed by the "leaders" of the separatist regime in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
The preparatory session began on January 17. The defendants are provided with Armenian-language interpreters and defense attorneys.
The prosecution is represented by six prosecutors, while the Azerbaijani government is represented by Rufat Mamedov, head of the Cabinet of Ministers' office, as the victim on behalf of the Azerbaijani state.
Notably, there are more than 531,000 victims and their representatives in this criminal case.
Based on the collected credible evidence, 15 individuals have been charged for crimes committed by the armed forces of Armenia and illegal armed formations in a total of 2,548 incidents.
The accused are Arayik Harutyunyan, Arkady Ghukasyan, David Ishkhanyan, David Babayan, Leva Mnatsakyan, David Manukyan, Garik Martirosyan, Melikset Pashayan, David Allahverdyan, Gurgen Stepanyan, Levon Balayan, Madat Babayan, Vasily Beglaryan and Erik Ghazaryan. They face charges under several articles of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan, based on the periods of their involvement in criminal acts.
The preparatory hearing in the case of Ruben Vardanyan, an Armenian citizen facing charges under Azerbaijan’s Criminal Code for torture, mercenarism, violations of war laws, terrorism, financing terrorism, and other offenses, is set to continue on January 27.
