The Azerbaijani authorities, violating the norms of international law, have sentenced Lebanese-Armenian Viken Euljekian, who was captured near Shushi in 2020, to 20 years in prison.
Several charges have been pressed against Mr. Euljekian. In particular, he has been charged with participation to terrorism, organized crimes and illegally crossing into Azerbaijani border.
The Lebanese-Armenian will spend five out of the 20 years in jail, and the rest in a correctional facility.
“The accusation was, as a rule, vague, they use ‘subversive actions’ as an accusation, but it is an outdated term in general, coming from the criminal justice system of the Soviet Union. What does ‘sabotage’ mean? Is it a terrorist act or not, is it a crime against humanity or not? As a rule, 20 years of imprisonment is imposed for such cases and actions, but only because he was found illegal in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), in case when the Artsakh conflict is a domestic conflict and not an international conflict, therefore, a person cannot be illegally in the territory of Artsakh, at least by virtue of public law,” says international law specialist Ara Ghazaryan.
