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The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday delivered judgments in the cases of Khojoyan and Vardazaryan v. Azerbaijan and Petrosyan v. Azerbaijan.

In the first case, the applicants, Hasmik Khojoyan, Heghine Vardazaryan and Haykaz Khojoyan (now deceased), are three Armenian nationals who were born in 1964, 1967 and 1959, respectively.

The case concerns the captivity and ill-treatment of the applicants’ father, Mamikon Khojoyan, in Azerbaijan in early 2014. The applicants’ father left his home in Armenia, close to the border with Azerbaijan on the morning of 28 January 2014. It was reported in the Azerbaijani news two days later that he was an armed guide of an Armenian sabotage group and was being detained. He was handed over to the Armenian authorities on 4 March 2014 and died at home ten weeks later.

The European court found that Baku has violated Article 2 (right to life), Article 3 (prohibition of torture) and Article 5 (right to liberty and security) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The ECHR obliged Azerbaijan to pay 40,000 euros to the applicants in non-pecuniary damage.

In the Petrosyan v. Azerbaijan case, the applicant, Artush Petrosyan, is an Armenian national who was born in 1957 and lives in Chinari (Armenia).

His son, Karen Petrosyan, born in 1981, lived with him in Chinari, close to the border with Azerbaijan.   On 7 August 2014 his son crossed the border into Azerbaijan and was captured by the Azerbaijani armed forces. He died while in captivity.

The ECHR found violations of Article 2 (investigation and right to life) and Article 3 (prohibition of torture) of the European Convention, and obliged Azerbaijan to pay 40,000 euros to the applicant in non-pecuniary damage.