An application has been submitted to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on behalf of Ruben Vardanyan, an Armenian national currently imprisoned in Azerbaijan, his lawyer Siranush Sahakyan announced.
In a statement, Sahakyan said she filed the application on July 19, 2026, and will represent Vardanyan before the Strasbourg-based court.
According to the lawyer, the application details violations of eight articles of the European Convention on Human Rights and is supported by extensive legal and factual arguments.
Vardanyan, the former State Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh, was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Baku Military Court on February 17, 2026. Sahakyan said the court did not read the full judgment during the hearing.
She noted that the written verdict, later obtained by Vardanyan’s family, found him guilty on 41 counts under 21 articles of Azerbaijan’s Criminal Code.
According to Sahakyan, the judgment failed to establish Vardanyan’s individual criminal responsibility through factual evidence. Instead, she said, the court concluded that the administration of the former unrecognized Republic of Artsakh constituted a “criminal community” that had operated in Nagorno-Karabakh since 1988, and asserted that Vardanyan joined it in December 2020, despite residing in Moscow at the time.
The lawyer argued that the court characterized Vardanyan’s appointment to a civilian administrative position as a violent seizure of power, interpreted his business and charitable activities as illegal entrepreneurship and financing of terrorism, and treated his entry into Nagorno-Karabakh via the Lachin Corridor as an illegal crossing of Azerbaijan’s state border.
Sahakyan said Vardanyan chose not to appeal the verdict in Azerbaijan, considering the trial to have been “staged and predetermined” and domestic legal remedies ineffective.
“In these circumstances, he chose to seek justice through international legal mechanisms,” she said.
Vardanyan was detained by Azerbaijani authorities in September 2023 after crossing the Lachin Corridor during the exodus of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan has charged him with numerous offenses, including terrorism-related crimes, accusations he has consistently denied. His legal team and international human rights advocates have repeatedly raised concerns about his detention and trial, while Azerbaijani authorities maintain that the proceedings complied with the country’s laws and international legal standards.
