ICJ: Trials of Armenians in Baku Do Not Meet Fair Trial Standards

The International Commission of Jurists has published a report on problems in Azerbaijan’s justice system titled Justice Under Pressure: The Independence of Lawyers and the Right to a Fair Trial in Azerbaijan.

The report examines numerous problems and violations in Azerbaijan’s justice system and provides a detailed analysis of the trials of Armenians in Baku in light of international standards.

“The trials of former Nagorno-Karabakh officials represent these concerns in their most acute form,” the report states.

The report clearly concludes that the trials do not meet the standards of international human rights law.

According to publicly available sources, the trials of Armenians have been accompanied by practices that violate fundamental fair trial guarantees. They have taken place in a military court, without any justification as to why military jurisdiction should apply to civilians.

The defendants have been denied effective assistance from lawyers of their own choosing. State-appointed lawyers failed to respond to evidence of ill-treatment that they personally witnessed. Case materials were either not provided or were provided in a language the defendants did not understand.

Defense motions were systematically rejected without justification and were not included in trial records. Interpretation was inadequate or entirely absent, while public access — including for accredited diplomatic representatives — was denied.