A number of international media outlets referred to the urgent appeal submitted by the international legal team of Ruben Vardanyan, who is illegally held captive in Azerbaijan. The appeal was submitted to the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture and urged the committee to condemn the torture and ill-treatment toward Ruben Vardanyan by the Azerbaijani government.
Reuters quoted Jared Genser, the international legal advisor of the Vardanyan family, as saying: “It is noteworthy that Azerbaijan views Ruben Vardanyan as a threat and tries to silence him with arbitrary detention and, in the recent period, with torture as well. If Azerbaijan wants to be taken seriously in the international arena, it should immediately stop these actions and release Vardanyan and other Armenian prisoners.”
The French newspaper Le Figaro also gave extensive coverage of the fact, noting that Ruben Vardanyan’s family is very worried about his condition. The newspaper notes that Vardanyan, who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian activities, is currently being tortured in prison in Baku.
The newspaper quoted Davit Vardanyan, Ruben Vardanyan’s eldest son, who told them about the tortures they had learned about. “He was not given the opportunity to sleep or sit down. He was deprived of drinking water for two days and was refused hygiene products,” Vardanyan’s son said.
The newspaper notes that 22 more Armenians are kept in prison in Baku, including the former leadership of Nagorno-Karabakh. It is said that Vardanyan moved to Nagorno-Karabakh to help the local population. During his stay there, he managed to draw the attention of the international community to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue and the situation there. “It was Vardanyan’s charismatic personality and voice, which could be heard in the international arena, that made him the target of the Azerbaijani government,” Le Figaro wrote.
