Prosecutors in Baku have come up with indictment speeches!

"The Caucasian Knot" media channel on November 4 has published an article with recent updates of the trial in Baku over former Nagorno-Karabakh officials accused of war crimes. The article also includes statements made to press by Mrs. Siranush Sahakyan, the Director of the "International and Comparative Law Center-Armenia" and the authorized legal representative of the accused at the ECtHR.

The article provides details on latest developments within the case. The Baku court officially concluded the trial over the accused on October 31. Prosecution delivered the indictment speech on November 3. Prosecution stated that the guilt of the former leaders of the unrecognized republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in crimes committed over 35 years has been proven. During the hearing, the prosecution summarized the facts examined during the trial and stated how the defendants' direct or indirect involvement in those events was proven. 

"The prosecutors' lengthy indictment was prepared in advance!" mentions Mrs. Siranush Sahakyan in her interview to press. She went on explaining that prosecutors were supposed to prepare their indictment for November 3 after the October 31 hearing. Two of those days, November 1 and 2, were non-working days. "Prosecutors would have had to demonstrate remarkable zeal to analyze all the case materials and draft an indictment based on them over Saturday and Sunday," she says. 

Further in the article one observes details on prosecution's indictment as follows. Senior Assistant to the Prosecutor General Vusal Aliyev stated in his speech that he considers the guilt of the defendants in the crimes with which they are accused, which were committed between 1988 and September 20, 2023, to be fully proven. Aliyev also noted that not all accomplices to these crimes, who at one time united “around ideas based on national-ethnic hatred and enmity towards the Azerbaijani people,” have appeared in court. 

"The prosecutors' indictments in Baku are political speeches developed by the security services and approved by the Azerbaijani presidential administration", says the human rights defender Sahakyan.

The lawyer also explained that after the prosecutors, the defense must speak, after which the defendants will be able to make their final statements. However, despite the fact that the trial is not yet complete, Mrs. Sahakyan believes guilty verdicts are predictable. The lawyer believes the court will impose the harshest possible sentences on the defendants, up to life imprisonment.