On 13 June, the International Legal Team of political prisoner Ruben Vardanyan detained in Azerbaijan submitted an urgent application to the special rapporteur of the UN Committee against Torture, urging to condemn the torture and ill-treatment of Ruben Vardanyan by the Azerbaijani government.
“It is of great concern that Ruben Vardanyan’s family and the international lawyer were informed that during the hunger strike announced in April 2024, Vardanyan was transferred to a prison cell, deprived of access to drinking water, sleep and contact with the outside world. There is no information as to how strong the psychological and physical damages caused to him were as a result of all that.
“Ruben Vardanyan is a well-known philanthropist who has been defending the rights of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh for many years. It is noteworthy that Azerbaijan views him as a threat; they try to silence him through arbitrary detention, and recently through torture and ill-treatment. If Azerbaijan wants to be taken seriously on the international stage, and for COP29 to become the “Peace COP”, it should stop the brutal treatment of Vardanyan and immediately release him and other political prisoners of Nagorno Karabakh,”. Jared Genser, international legal advisor of Vardanyan family said.
On 5-25 April, 2024, Ruben Vardanyan announced a hunger strike in protest against the politically motivated persecution of him and other Armenian prisoners. In response, the officials of the pre-trial detention center of the State Security Service of Azerbaijan transferred Vardanyan to the punishment cell, where he was kept during the entire hunger strike. The light was on around the clock in the solitary cell, which led to insomnia and exhaustion. In addition, he was forced to stand on his feet for a long time and deprived of drinking water for more than two days. Moreover, he was not allowed to bathe and change his clothes, was not provided with toilet paper, was not allowed to take a book or any reading material, he was deprived of bed linen. It is particularly worrying that neither Vardanyan’s lawyer nor anyone else, including the local Human Rights Defender, was allowed to visit Vardanyan during the hunger strike, and his contact with the outside world (for example, phone calls with his family) was stopped.
With this attitude, aimed at punishing Vardanyan for his hunger strike, as well as political activities in Nagorno-Karabakh and the defense of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan grossly violates its obligations under the Convention against Torture, as well as the UN Revised Minimum Standard Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. Unfortunately, the cruel treatment towards Ruben Vardanyan is not at all surprising. Azerbaijan has a well-known and well-documented history of torturing both political prisoners in general and ethnic Armenian detainees in particular. Given Ruben Vardanyan’s nationality, his status as a former high-ranking official in the Nagorno-Karabakh government, his open criticism of Azerbaijan’s treatment of Nagorno-Karabakh and the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as his detention under the State Security Service (which has a notorious reputation for torturing ethnic Armenians), Vardanyan is at imminent risk of further torture and ill-treatment.
“We were shocked to know what horrors my father went through. It is terrible to even think about what they do in Azerbaijan to the not so famous prisoners who did not have such international support as my father. For the sake of all political prisoners held in Azerbaijan, be they Armenians, Azerbaijanis or representatives of any other nationality, such inhumane treatment of the prisoners must be stopped. We call on the United Nations to hold the Azerbaijani government accountable and help protect my father’s life,” Ruben Vardanyan’s eldest son Davit Vardanyan said.
Many human rights organizations, national governments and international structures called on Azerbaijan to release Ruben Vardanyan and other political prisoners of Nagorno Karabakh. For example, on 11 June, 2024, American Senator Ed Markey, from the high chair of the Senate, called for the release of the prisoners, specifically mentioning and condemning the brutal treatment against Vardanyan,” the report states.
