Former political figures and officers of Nagorno-Karabakh, the place ethnic Armenians maintained an unrecognised breakaway statelet for 3 a long time till Azerbaijan restored navy management in 2023, attend a court docket listening to in Baku, Azerbaijan, February 5, 2026, on this display screen seize taken from a video.
| Picture Credit score: Reuters
An Azerbaijani navy court docket on Thursday (February 5, 2026) imposed phrases of as much as life imprisonment in opposition to Armenian separatist leaders charged in a struggle crimes trial, state media reported.
Azerbaijan’s seizure of its breakaway area of Karabakh in 2023 ended practically three a long time of management by Armenian separatists, prompting the enclave’s complete ethnic Armenian inhabitants — greater than 100,000 individuals — to flee.
After regaining management of the disputed area, Baku arrested a number of separatist leaders on struggle crimes fees. Armenia has demanded their launch.
Araik Harutyunyan — who led Karabakh’s separatist authorities from Could 2020 to September 2023 — “was sentenced to life imprisonment by Baku’s navy court docket”, state information company Azertag mentioned.
He was convicted of “crimes together with waging an aggressive struggle, genocide, terrorism and different offences” linked to Armenia’s decades-long management of the mountainous enclave, the company mentioned.
Arkady Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan — who served as Karabakh’s separatist presidents from 1997 to 2007, and from 2007 to 2020 respectively — have been “sentenced to twenty years in jail, as a life time period couldn’t be imposed as a result of they’d reached the age of 65.”
Different convicts included former Karabakh parliament speaker Davit Ishkhanyan, former Karabakh international minister Davit Babayan and main common in Armenia’s armed forces, Davit Manukyan, who have been all sentenced to life imprisonment on equivalent fees.
Two trials — one for 15 former officers, one other for the area’s billionaire former chief, Ruben Vardanyan — opened in Baku in January 2025.
Verdicts for the opposite defendants within the case have been anticipated later Thursday. Hearings have largely been held behind closed doorways, with entry restricted to state media.
Armenia’s International Ministry has mentioned it’s going to pursue “all attainable steps,” together with worldwide authorized motion, to guard the rights of these standing trial in Baku.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a peace settlement final 12 months, mediated by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Revealed – February 05, 2026 09:14 pm IST