Azerbaijan announced that it has established a “single investigative team” in connection with the prosecution of former Artsakh leaders who were arrested following Azerbaijan’s attack on Artsakh that led to the mass exodus of more than 100,000 residents to Armenia.
“A single investigative team has been established in the General Prosecutor’s Office regarding separatists detained in the Karabakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] region of Azerbaijan,” said Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General Kamran Aliyev, according to the APA news agency.
Artsakh’s former presidents Arakady Ghukasian, Bako Sahakian and Arayik Harutyunyan, as well as Artsakh Parliament Speaker Davit Ishkhanyan were among the officials who were arrested. They, as well as two high-ranking military leaders, Artsakh’s former State Minister Ruben Vardanyan and Artsakh’s former foreign minister David Babayan — who turned himself in — were sentenced to four-month pre-trial detention.
The leaders, who are being called “separatists” by Azerbaijan, have been charged with a slew of crimes, and are accused of inciting so-called genocide against Azerbaijan during the 1990’s and the 2020 War.
“The people of Azerbaijan will be fully informed about the course of this investigation and its results. We will provide it. After the investigation, the case will be sent to court,” said Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General.
