Azerbaijani court sentences 5 formerly high-ranking Karabakh officials to life in prison

A military court in the Azerbaijani capital Baku has sentenced five senior members of the government of the now dissolved republic of Artsakh in Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region to life imprisonment, state news agency AZERTAC reported on Thursday.

The court found the men — former president Arayik Harutyunyan, defence minister Levon Mnatsakanyan, speaker David Ishkhanyan, deputy commander of the armed forces David Manukyan and foreign minister David Babayan — guilty of war crimes, after they were charged with preparing and pursuing a war of aggression, genocide, violation of the laws or customs of war, terrorism, financing terrorism and the forcible seizure and retention of power, according to AZERTAC.

Two other former presidents of Nagorno-Karabakh, Arkady Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan, were each sentenced to 20 years in prison, AZERTAC continued. Former minister Ruben Vardanyan also faces life imprisonment, with his sentence due to be announced shortly. 

In total, some 15 former Artsakh officials stood trial in Azerbaijan, none of whom has pleaded guilty. All the defendants on trial were detained in late 2023 during a one-day military operation by Azerbaijan, which resulted in Nagorno-Karabakh’s recapture by Azerbaijani forces. 

Control of Nagorno-Karabakh, which has always been legally a part of Azerbaijan despite it at one point having a majority Armenian population, was the subject of an armed dispute between Yerevan and Baku that lasted for four decades.

After 30 years of being run as a breakaway republic by ethnic Armenians, Azerbaijan launched a surprise invasion of the region in September 2023, taking full control of it and leading to the mass exodus of some 100,000 ethnic Armenian residents.