Some 80 Armenian captives still held in Azerbaijan - human rights activist
YEREVAN, September 27. /ARKA/. Armenian lawyer Siranush Sahakyan, who represents Armenian prisoners' interests at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), said that 80 Armenian captives who were subjected to forced disappearance are being held in Azerbaijan.
"There are about 80 Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan, but this fact is still not officially recognized by the Azerbaijani authorities," the human rights activist said at a press conference on Tuesday.
According to her, 156 Armenians have already been released from captivity and returned to their homeland, but many prisoners are still kept in Azerbaijan.
Sahakyan said that before Azerbaijan's September 13 attack on three Armenian border regions this year, 33 Armenian citizens remained officially in Azerbaijani captivity following fthe 44-day war in Artsakh in 2020, but now their number has grown by another 20 new captives.
"Most of them have already been officially confirmed, but we expect the ECHR to confirm their captivity, and then we will be able to more precisely confirm also the number of captives after Azerbaijan's latest aggression against Armenia,' she said.
The office of Armenia's representative for international legal issues reported said on Monday that the European Court of Human Rights has given Azerbaijan additional time to provide information about Armenian prisoners.
"In response to a number of requests filed by the Armenian government to the ECHR demanding interim measures against Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani government requested additional time from the European Court to provide full information about the prisoners of war. The request was granted by the Court. The new deadline for Azerbaijan is September 29," it said.
Earlier it was reported that Armenia filed several lawsuits against Azerbaijan to the European Court of Human Rights, including those for providing information about the condition of Armenian prisoners and demanding that their rights be guaranteed.-0-
