Victims Testify as Baku Court Hears Case Against Former Armenian Leaders Over Atrocities

Baku, The Gulf Observer: The Baku Military Court on August 18 continued hearings in the criminal cases against a group of Armenian citizens, including Arayik Harutyunyan, Arkadi Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, Davit Ishkhanyan, David Babayan, Levon Mnatsakanyan, and others, who face charges of committing crimes against peace and humanity, war crimes, genocide, terrorism, and numerous other offences linked to Armenia’s military aggression against Azerbaijan.

The trial is being presided over by Judge Zeynal Agayev, with judges Jamal Ramazanov and Anar Rzayev, and reserve judge Gunel Samadova. Defendants were provided with translators in their preferred languages and legal representation.

The session was attended by the accused, their defense attorneys, victims, their legal heirs and representatives, as well as state prosecutors. At the outset, Judge Agayev introduced the judicial panel, prosecutors, and translators to the victims present for the first time, outlining their rights and obligations under Azerbaijani law.

During the hearing, the defense lawyers of former separatist leaders Bako Sahakyan and Arayik Harutyunyan requested confidential consultations with their clients, which the court granted, leading to a brief recess.

Testimonies from victims and their legal heirs then resumed. Witnesses recounted forced displacement, massacres, shelling, and destruction carried out by Armenian armed forces during the First Karabakh War, the April 2016 clashes, the 44-day Patriotic War of 2020, and subsequent border escalations.

Among the testimonies:

• Namig Hasanov, heir of Eldar Hasanov, described his father’s killing in Khojaly during the 1992 massacre.
• Chingiz Almammedov, a former police officer from Lachin, recounted the killing of his father, brother, and other relatives during artillery attacks launched from Armenia.
• Nuran Gasimov testified that he was wounded during the 2020 Patriotic War, while his brother was killed in the April 2016 battles.
• Khuraman Muradova detailed the massacre in Balligaya village, Goranboy, in August 1992, when 24 Azerbaijani civilians, including infants and elderly, were killed.
• Numerous other witnesses described being forcibly displaced from Lachin, Jabrayil, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Zangilan, and other regions, losing family members, and enduring looting, arson, and systematic violence.

The victims also responded to questions from state prosecutors, the accused, and defense attorneys.

Fifteen Armenian defendants are being tried under multiple provisions of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code, including articles on waging an aggressive war, genocide, extermination, deportation, persecution, enforced disappearance, torture, terrorism, financing of terrorism, creation of illegal armed groups, and forcible seizure of power.

The prosecution argues that these crimes were committed under the leadership and participation of Armenian state officials, military commanders, and separatist figures, with material and organizational support provided by the Armenian state.

The trial is scheduled to continue on August 21.