Ruben Vardanyan, the former Minister of State of Artsakh, who has been in custody in Azerbaijan for more than a year, is isolated from the lawyers hired by his family. Vardanyan's son Davit told RTVI about this.
"The key problem and absurdity of the situation is that the only representatives of my father's interests who have access to him are local Azerbaijani lawyers. Our international lawyers were never able not only to see my father, but even to contact him. In other words, this is a complete information vacuum and complete isolation," Davit Vardanyan said.
According to him, all requests of the lawyers to see Ruben Vardanyan "were simply ignored or rejected." "Independent doctors" also cannot visit the former Minister of State of NKR.
"The only thing that happened was the research that the state hospital did after his hunger strike <...> There are some visits, as we understand, from the Red Cross, but again, this is not enough, because they are quite superficial." - said Davit Vardanyan.
Letters can also be sent only through the Red Cross, which has "very strict regulations" - no more than four pages, he assured.
"They (the Red Cross) are working as well as they can, but their hands are also very tied there. We cannot send regular letters. As my father told me, he has already sent an unlimited number of letters in the last six months. None of them reached the addressee, that is, this communication method has been cut off for us as well," said Davit Vardanyan.
The son of the former minister of state of Artsakh noted that he calls his father, but "certain issues" cannot be discussed over the phone. He also noted that the family is grateful to the local attorney who "risked his life."
Davit Vardanyan confirmed that his father was charged with 45 charges under 20 articles. According to him, the criminal file contains 25,000 pages in Azerbaijani, which are translated orally for him by the translator appointed by the "investigator and prosecutor's office".
He also noted that his family is "very grateful" to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who expressed hope that Azerbaijan will be guided by "humanitarian considerations" towards the former authorities of Nagorno Karabakh. "We are incredibly grateful for such words and hope they will be heeded," he said.
