Vagif Khachatryan, illegally held in Azerbaijan, hospitalized in serious condition

Vagif Khachatryan, who is being held illegally in Azerbaijan, has been hospitalized.

According to local media, the 70-year-old Khachatryan (born 1955) began feeling unwell on Dec․ 22, 2025, experiencing difficulty breathing and chest pain.

The Baku Military Court sentenced Armenian citizen Vagif Khachatryan to 15 years in prison in 2023. It is planned that Khachatryan will spend five years of the 15-year sentence in prison, and the remaining term in a strict regime correctional facility.

Khachatryan was arrested in July 2023 at an Azerbaijani checkpoint in the Lachin corridor while crossing from Artsakh to Armenia under Red Cross escort.

According to Azerbaijani charges, Khachatryan and a criminal group he allegedly belonged to “killed 25 Azerbaijanis, injured 14, and displaced 358 people from their permanent residences in the village of Meshali, Khojalu District, in December 1991.”

He first received medical care at the medical unit of the Ministry of Justice’s Main Medical Department and was then urgently transferred to the Ministry’s medical facility. Intensive therapy and resuscitation measures were provided, but as his condition did not significantly improve, he was moved to an appropriate state medical institution.

His condition is currently considered serious.