Václav Havel Prize Nominee Ruben Vardanyan Suffers in an Azerbaijani Prison

Václav Havel Prize Nominee Ruben Vardanyan Suffers in an Azerbaijani Prison

Former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh, including Ruben Vardanyan, a potential laureate of the Václav Havel Prize, received draconian sentences in Baku, with some sentenced to life imprisonment. Amnesty International describes the proceedings as non-transparent and fabricated. The situation has also been criticized by the European Parliament, which, in a resolution, condemned the detention of Armenian prisoners of war and supported the rights of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Following Vardanyan’s conviction in February 2026, Amnesty International described the entire trial of nineteen ethnic Armenians as a travesty of justice. Marie Struthers, the organization’s director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, stated that the very fact of trying civilians before a military tribunal is incompatible with guarantees of a fair trial. Vardanyan was tried by a three-judge panel of the Baku Military Court, despite being a civilian with no connection to the armed forces or security structures. The principle that military tribunals must not try civilians is among the universally recognized standards of international human rights law.

Vardanyan faced more than forty charges, including terrorism, the creation of illegal armed groups, and the violent seizure of power. In total, more than 2,500 charges were brought against the defendants, including genocide, slavery, and crimes against humanity. The hearings were held behind closed doors, and the evidence was presented in a language the defendants did not understand, without proper translation.

“Azerbaijan must comply with its obligations under international human rights law and ensure that all defendants are tried in full accordance with international law and fair trial guarantees,” Struthers said. The full text of the charges was not made public during the proceedings, and Amnesty’s request for an explanation was ignored by the authorities in Baku.

The Václav Havel Prize

Former Nagorno-Karabakh Prime Minister Vardanyan was nominated in May by a group of international human rights advocates for the 2026 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize. In their statement, the nominators highlighted his long-standing contribution through the nonprofit Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, which supports humanitarian workers helping people threatened by war, violence, and persecution. The organization has already supported a total of 583 projects in 67 countries, helping more than 3.5 million people.

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Over the past two decades, Vardanyan, either personally or together with his family and partners, has supported more than 700 humanitarian and educational projects totaling over $1.5 billion. Among the best known are UWC Dilijan College in Armenia, the cable car to the Tatev Monastery, the Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology, and the SKOLKOVO Business School in Moscow.

Philanthropic circles also attach importance to his decision to move to Nagorno-Karabakh during the blockade and humanitarian crisis, where, according to them, he sought to find a path toward dialogue and understanding in one of the most sensitive conflicts of our time.

According to the nominators, awarding him the prize would not only recognize his work, but would also send an important signal in support of his release and the release of other Armenian prisoners held in Baku.

Disputed Charges, Twenty Years in Prison

On February 5, 2026, an Azerbaijani court in Baku handed down sentences against former representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh. Former President Arayik Harutyunyan, former commanders Levon Mnatsakanyan and Davit Manukyan, former Foreign Minister Davit Babayan, and Parliament Speaker Davit Ishkhanyan were sentenced to life imprisonment. Former presidents Arkadi Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan each received 20-year sentences.

Ruben Vardanyan was sentenced separately. On February 17, 2026, the court sentenced him to 20 years in prison. According to the ICJ, some of the charges date back to 1988, when he was a student in Moscow — decades before his political role in Karabakh, which he assumed at the end of 2022. According to a statement by his family, the businessman and former Prime Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh decided not to appeal the verdict. He described this as a conscious refusal to legitimize a process that, from the outset, bore no signs of justice.

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“My father has become a pawn in a political game. The case against him lacks basic legal guarantees, and the charges have no basis in reality,” said Vardanyan’s son, David Vardanyan. Defense lawyers also note that Vardanyan did not have sufficient time to prepare his defense and that a large part of the case files was in Azerbaijani, a language he does not understand.

The specific extent of these obstacles is documented in materials prepared by Vardanyan’s lawyer, Siranush Sahakyan. The case file against him consists of 422 volumes and approximately 105,000 pages. He was given 17 working days to study them; the court later added another ten days, but six of those fell on public holidays. In practice, this meant only four additional days. The Russian translation of the indictment — itself, according to the defense, full of factual errors — was delivered to him at 20:37 on the evening before the first hearing on January 15, 2025. More than twenty defense motions remained unresolved, and approximately ten requests to recuse judges were rejected by the court on the grounds of “insufficient evidence of bias.”

According to Sahakyan, the court also systematically manipulated hearing records. Some interrogation protocols from October and December 2024 even lacked the signatures of both the accused and his lawyer, which, under Azerbaijan’s criminal procedure code, renders them legally invalid. Vardanyan was also denied access to a notary through whom he intended to file a civil lawsuit against the Azerbaijani newspaper Bakinsky Rabochy, which had published defamatory materials about him.

Europe Calls for Their Release

The European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe have described Vardanyan and other detained Armenian representatives as political prisoners. The French Senate used the same designation and also adopted a formal call for their immediate release. More than 150 international figures and dozens of human rights organizations have gradually joined this position. In May 2026, the families of the prisoners also appealed to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, asking him to involve Canada’s Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs in the case. According to their letter, a total of 19 Armenians are being held in Baku.

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Vardanyan has repeatedly protested the conditions of his detention and trial. In April 2024, he began his first hunger strike, demanding the immediate and unconditional release of all unlawfully detained Armenian prisoners. He announced a second hunger strike in February 2025 in protest against what he called a “judicial farce.” In October 2025, he refused the services of his lawyer. According to Vardanyan, under the existing conditions, the defense could not truly change anything, and its presence only helped the court pretend that the process was fair. In December 2025, the prosecutor requested a life sentence. The court ultimately imposed 20 years.

The trials of former Karabakh representatives and the separate proceedings against Vardanyan began in Baku on January 17, 2025. According to Reuters, access to the courtrooms was restricted from the outset to Azerbaijani state media, while foreign journalists were denied entry.

The International Commission of Jurists, an organization bringing together sixty prominent judges and lawyers from all regions of the world, has also taken a critical position. In its report Justice Under Pressure, it stated that the proceedings took place without independent international observers. According to the ICJ, defense lawyers lacked sufficient access to case files, defense motions were rejected without reasoning, and the public, foreign media, and diplomats were excluded from the hearings.

Disappearing Documents and the Departure of the Red Cross

Former Foreign Minister Babayan described a serious irregularity to NEWS.am in a message passed on through his family. His appeal submissions, sent from isolation on February 23, 2026, disappeared, and he learned of their loss only on May 7, which, according to his lawyer, was also the final day of the appeal deadline. During his transfer from isolation on April 21, the text of his final speech from December 2025 was also confiscated. In it, Babayan described the trial as an ethno-political vendetta and stated that he intended to appeal to an international court.

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“After the forced departure of the Red Cross, communication with my father has been significantly restricted and takes place only through short, strictly monitored phone calls. My father is being held in solitary confinement and subjected to ill-treatment,” said the son of convicted Vardanyan. In March 2025, Azerbaijan ordered the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to close its local office. The Red Cross had operated in the country since 1992 and assisted people affected by the conflict. Its work included clarifying the fate of missing persons and facilitating visits to people detained in connection with the conflict. During these visits, the ICRC monitored detention conditions and the treatment of prisoners, while also helping detainees maintain contact with their families.

Reuters reported as early as 2024 that lawyers had pointed to detention in a punishment cell, constant lighting, and restrictions on access to water and hygiene. Human Rights Watch and the UN Committee against Torture have long drawn attention to torture and impunity in Azerbaijani prisons.

The seriousness of the Red Cross’s departure is also confirmed by the aforementioned letter from the families of Armenian prisoners to the Canadian Prime Minister. In it, the families confirm that the closure of the ICRC office has further deprived them of regular independent verification of the condition of their loved ones and warn that the detainees are thus left without any international oversight.

“Armenian prisoners face restrictions on practicing their faith. In the first week of detention, my father was denied a Bible and Christian books written in Armenian,” said David Vardanyan. Reports have come from other prisoners that tattooed crosses and other religious symbols were burned off their bodies. The case fits into the broader pattern of systematic destruction of Armenian churches and Christian monuments in abandoned parts of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but historically had a majority Armenian population. Local Armenian separatists, supported by Yerevan, took control of it in a bloody war that ended in 1994. In September 2023, Azerbaijan seized Karabakh in a lightning military operation, and around 100,000 Armenians fled the enclave to Armenia out of fear of persecution.