By Mark Trevelyan
(Reuters) – A former top official in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh protested on the eve of his trial before an Azerbaijani military court on Friday that he had not been given enough time to prepare his defence on 42 charges including terrorism.
Ruben Vardanyan, a former billionaire banker who was born in Armenia before making his fortune in Russia, demanded that the case be halted.
“I once again … state my complete innocence and the innocence of my Armenian compatriots also being held as political prisoners and demand an immediate end to this politically motivated case against us,” he said in a statement released via his family.
Vardanyan served as the number-two official in Karabakh from late 2022 until February 2023. Seven months later, Azerbaijan recaptured the enclave where ethnic Armenians had enjoyed three decades of de facto independence since breaking away from Baku’s control in a war that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Vardanyan was arrested when he fled as part of a mass exodus of some 100,000 Armenians from the mountainous territory.
Fifteen other people, including several former Karabakh leaders, are also facing trial on various charges including genocide and war crimes, according to Azerbaijani prosecutors.
The accusations against Vardanyan, all of which he rejects, include torture, gun-running, forcibly deporting people, seizing power by force, and planning and conducting a war of aggression.
“During the investigation, Ruben Vardanyan’s rights to legal defense, the use of his preferred language, and other procedural rights were ensured,” prosecutors said in a statement, adding that he had received full access to the case materials.
In a statement posted on Telegram by his family, Vardanyan disputed that.
“I have been informed that I am facing 42 charges, some of which carry sentences up to life imprisonment. However, I have not been granted the opportunity to fully review the official indictment,” he said.
He said the 422 volumes of the criminal case against him had been presented to him and his lawyer on Dec. 9 in Azerbaijani, a language he does not speak.
Vardanyan said he had been detained for more than 470 days, including 340 in solitary confinement and 23 in a punishment cell. But he said he did not bear any anger or hatred, and wanted “true peace” between Armenians and Azerbaijanis.
(Additional reporting by Nailia Bagirova and Lucy Papachristou, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
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