Statement: Davit Babayan's Message from Azerbaijani Prison

Davit Babayan, the former foreign minister of Artsakh currently held in Azerbaijani captivity, has addressed all human rights defenders and goodwill individuals. An audio message was transmitted to NEWS.am through Babayan's family.

“Dear compatriots, beloved friends, sisters and brothers, the global Armenian community, and our brothers and sisters of other nationalities, goodwill individuals, you know that the so-called trial has come to an end, including the appellate phase. What trial? This was a theater whose script was written in advance. They did not even dare to correct elementary mistakes. For example, in the last session, when presenting the attendees, they introduced my defenders as the old team despite the fact that they had changed during this trial. This means that they not only considered it unnecessary to verify but also did not dare to change the pre-written script, nor to correct the mistakes that existed.

This was simply a formal phase that we had to go through so that later we could use it to appeal to the international court. There were no citizens present at the appellate court session, whereas in the first instance, about 200-300 people attended each time. Of course, they were all brought selectively, by special buses. Additionally, according to some information, they were also compensated well, but this time there was not a single person. One of the reasons is that those people saw what abuses were taking place there, saw their side's weak positions, our self-defense, our determination, and the quality of that self-defense, and naturally, all of this inevitably penetrates into their society.

Very interesting ideas are being circulated that are simply unimaginable. For example, a crime committed by one person is automatically attributed to everyone. Or ideas that are impossible to comprehend in the history of the international community. For instance, I have been added two life sentences for articles that were never mentioned at any point during the entire trial. I noticed this when we were given a shortened document about that a week after the trial ended. I requested that they refer to our speeches, both the final statement to the first instance court and the main speeches of this trial, and send them to their Human Rights Defender, but they refused. They claim that the trial is open, but they even refuse to provide all this to their Human Rights Defender.

One of the interesting phenomena is that the defenders have also changed; 5-6 defenders have been replaced during this time. One changed precisely at the start of the appellate court proceedings. I tried to find out the reason; they said it was health issues. In the courtroom, during the hearings, I said to connect with them via video call, as I wanted to personally know how they were doing; of course, they intervened and did not connect, saying their lives were not in danger. Of course, they did not allow the proceedings to continue every moment, interrupting and hindering.

All of this is important for us to present at the international court. It's also interesting to note that one of the defenders here declared that they do not want the case to reach the international court because more than 95% of the charges are fabricated and lack any evidence. Indeed, that is the case. Let me give a specific example: I have been sentenced to life for an article alleging that I was trying to overthrow the local government, and to overthrow the constitution, and so on. I asked if there was any evidence that I, being here, participated in the struggle for your government. If so, then I should have had supporters throughout your country, some sort of organizational cells. Of course, there is no response. Additionally, all our complaints in court have been 100% satisfied in favor of the prosecution. In the first instance court, 99.4% were satisfied in favor of the prosecution.

I expressed my gratitude for such a quality and number of mistakes because this is very important for us; it will also contribute to restoring justice since we will present all this in the international court. It is quite characteristic that, instead of evidence, they use substitutes—lies, forgeries, ribbons, their political approaches, slogans, and so on. Sometimes we tried to see the records to see how all this is documented in their documents; we saw that what we said is not even included, or, at best, it is included in a very abbreviated or distorted form. This is nothing other than legal apartheid.

What can be said when it is officially declared that it is necessary to broaden the scope of unintentional killings so that everyone can be accused of murder?” Davit Babayan also mentioned that he has health issues, which he raised in court and requested to be recorded. “Of course, I doubt it; it is clear they wouldn't want me to go to the international court. Not only do I have health issues; many of our friends have serious health problems as well. Certainly, this is somewhat expected because we are fighting for justice and freedom in this evil world for human rights, and that doesn't happen easily. One thing is to fight for justice; another is to be imprisoned for that, but know that, despite being imprisoned, we are not on our knees, and let everyone know this. The rest, everything is normal; stay strong, dear compatriots, goodwill individuals, our homeland is still waiting for tough phenomena ahead.”