Your trusted source

The Baku Military Court will resume the sham trial of Armenian political prisoner Ruben Vardanyan on Monday.

After each court hearing, Free Armenian Prisoners shares case updates, which are conveyed to Vardanyan’s family by his local attorney.

Vardanyan, a former Artsakh state minister, is facing 42 charges, including articles carrying sentences up to life imprisonment.

The last hearing on February 6 focused on the announcement of charges against Vardanyan.

The prosecutor began reading charges dating back to 1988, which have no connection to Vardanyan, as he was studying at Moscow State University at that time.

All of the motions filed by Vardanyan's counsel were denied including:

– A request for copies of all written documents and materials to be used by the prosecution at trial;
– A request for translations of all such written documents and materials into Russian or English, as he does not understand Azeri;
– A request for access to all referenced video “evidence” with translations, as necessary;
– A request for regular access to the Internet to access materials necessary to prepare for trial.

So far, Ruben Vardanyan has only had orally translated for him less than five percent of thousands of pages of the indictment and “evidence,” to be used against him.  And his local counsel has only been able to review 20 percent of the materials.

In addition, Vardanyan's counsel filed a motion to challenge the court-appointed interpreter after discovering serious discrepancies in the translated documents provided to him, e.g.:

– The translated decision from the preliminary hearing contained references to Belarusian legislation, which is entirely irrelevant to the case.
– The court clarified that this translation had been done by a different translator, not the one currently interpreting the proceedings. While the motion was denied, the court instructed that a correct and accurate translation be provided.

Vardanyan's counsel also submitted a motion to recuse the judicial panel. The judicial panel stated that this motion would only be considered after the state prosecutor finishes presenting the charges.

The announcement of charges will continue at the February 10 and February 13 hearings.