Jared Genser: Ruben Vardanyan’s sentence to 20 years in prison is simply a travesty of justice

The conviction and sentence of  RubenVardanyan to 20 years in prison by the Baku Military Court on manufactured charges is simply a travesty of justice, Jared Genser, International Counsel to Ruben Vardanyan wrote on his X microblog, urging President Donald Trump to follow through on his public commitment to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to secure the release of all of them from President Aliyev so they can safely return to Armenia.

Baku’s court sentenced Artsakh former State Minister Ruben Vardanyan to 20 years in prison.

Genser noted that Ruben Vardanyan’s only ‘crime’ was standing up for the right to self-determination of the Armenian-Christian people of Nagorno-Karabakh. 

“The trial itself was a total sham as it is illegal for civilians to ever be tried before a military court. It was also held in secret, with countless other due process abuses such repeated denials of access to counsel and the court simply ignoring dozens of filed motions that under Azeri law had to each be ruled upon within days of their filing. Beyond that, literally all the so-called ‘evidence’ of the ‘witnesses’ presented to the court was illegal as inadmissible hearsay,” Genser noted. 

Speaking about witnesses he said, “Every witness claimed they or family members were injured in attacks by the Armenian military or other armed groups - but the sum total of the ‘evidence’ Ruben was actually connected to or responsible for any of these attacks was their having heard in the Azeri state-run media that he was responsible. That is evidence of nothing at all. As such, Ruben’s conviction and sentence violates both international and Azeri law and all 19 Armenian-Christian political prisoners and POWs must be immediately and unconditionally released. I urge President Donald Trump to follow through on his public commitment to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to secure the release of all of them from President Aliyev so they can safely return to Armenia.”