Lawyer: Facts of torture against Azerbaijani hostages to be sent to ECHR

Commenting to Trend on the facts, Dilgam Asgarov’s lawyer Anar Bagirov noted that the two captives are constantly tortured.

“We have all the necessary information that we constantly send to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in order to speed up the process of considering the case,” the lawyer said.

Asgarov and Guliyev were detained by the Armenian armed forces in July 2014 while visiting their native places and graves of loved ones in Kalbajar. Moreover,Armenian armed forces killed the third Azerbaijani Hasan Hasanov.

Later, Guliyev and Asgarov were judged illegally by the unrecognized courts of the separatist regime in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh. Following an expedited“trial process”in December 2015, Asgarov was sentenced to life imprisonment and Guliyev – to 22 years in prison.

Azerbaijan’s State Committee on Affairs of Refugees and IDPs, the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons and other agencies have repeatedly urged international organizations, including the ICRC, to assist in release of Guliyev and Asgarov, whilst the problem remains topical yet.

In its article, CIPDH noted that the traces of moral and physical torture can be clearly seen in Asgarov and Guliyev’s videos and photos shot during the so-called “trial process.”The Committee also criticized the “trial process,” which did not have any legal basis and whose claimed “verdicts” had no legal effects whatsoever.

CIPDH also noted that the information given to the hostages’ families through letters says that both prisoners have serious health issues. The Committee added that Armenia, which started the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan, ignores the international acts, such as the 1949 Geneva Convention on the Protec- tion of Victims of War, and violates the provisions of international humanitarian law. In this regard, CIPDH called on all the international organizations to take immediate measures.

Azerbaijan, whose over 4,000 citizens were taken captive, hostage, or went missing as a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh war, has repeatedly declared its readiness to begin negotiations with Armenia to free the captives and resolve the long-standing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

However, the Armenian side keeps ignoring all attempts of Azerbaijan and international organizations, thereby disrespecting the international law and hindering the settlement of the conflict.