Kidnapped Vagif Khachatryan pleads not guilty in Baku court
Vagif Khachatryan, an Artsakh man kidnapped by Azerbaijani forces in late July, on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to charges that he committed crimes against Azerbaijanis.
The 68-year-old man was abducted and arrested by Azerbaijani border guards at the Lachin checkpoint on 29 July while being evacuated to Armenia by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for an urgent heart surgery.
A court in Baku began his trial on trumped-up charges of "genocide" and "deportation or forced movement of the population” on Friday, October 13.
Khachatryan looked distraught and unwell as he appeared before the Baku court last week. Videos circulated by Azerbaijani media showed that he could hardly hold back his tears.
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry denounced the sham trial as a “show of complete disregard for any norms in Baku.”
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