There is no international search for Vagif Khachatryan, who was taken to Armenia for treatment and kidnapped by the Azerbaijanis, Armenian human rights defender Anahit Manasyan said. According to him, the unlawful interference with the rights of the 68-year-old citizen is a violation of international legal guarantees and standards.
“The statement issued by the Prosecutor’s Office of Azerbaijan about this does not correspond to the reality,” the Human Rights Council noted.
The human rights defender emphasized that Vagif Khachatryan is a person under international humanitarian protection who was being transported to Armenia under the auspices of the ICRC to receive treatment, so his abduction by the border guards of Azerbaijan is a gross violation of international humanitarian law.
According to Anahit Manasyan, the transfer of people to Armenia in order to receive urgent medical aid by the ICRC was agreed with the Azerbaijani authorities, after which only the ICRC performed the international humanitarian mission. “The Azerbaijani side agreed to the transfer of a person for humanitarian purposes, and then unlawfully interfered with the fundamental rights of a person,” the Defender noted, adding that this is a gross violation of human rights by the Azerbaijani authorities.
The Prosecutor’s Office of Artsakh has opened a criminal case regarding the kidnapping of an Artsakh citizen. The Minister of State of Artsakh and the Defender of Human Rights raised the alarm about the abduction today. Hours after those announcements, Baku reported that the Azerbaijani law enforcement officers had arrested and transferred the man to Baku for treatment in Armenia. The Prosecutor General’s Office of Azerbaijan announced that “he was charged” back in 2013, and a decision was made to arrest him, in the same year “an international search was announced”.
Artsakh President’s advisor Artak Beglaryan also stated that Azerbaijan’s accusations against Vagif Khachatryan are false, no such crime was committed in the village of Meshali.