Former State Minister of the unrecognized NKR Ruben Vardanyan is sentenced to 4 months of imprisonment during the investigation. This decision was made today by the Azerbaijani court.
Vardanyan was detained the day before in Lachin district while trying to cross the state border of Azerbaijan with Armenia. He was charged under three articles of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan.
Ruben Vardanyan was detained by officers of the State Border Service of Azerbaijan on September 27, 2023 while attempting to cross the state border of Azerbaijan with Armenia. He was taken to Baku on the same day.
“Armenian citizen Ruben Vardanyan was detained and prosecuted.
The collected evidence revealed reasonable suspicion that Ruben Vardanyan (born in 1968), currently an Armenian citizen, committed crimes under Articles 214-1 (financing of terrorism), 279.3 (participation in the establishment and activities of illegal armed formations or groups) and 318.1 (illegal crossing of the state border of Azerbaijan) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Ruben Vardanyan is accused that being a foreign citizen, in order to commit terrorist acts in September 2022, he illegally crossed the state border of the Republic of Azerbaijan, entered the territory of temporary deployment of Russian peacekeepers in the Karabakh economic region of the Republic of Azerbaijan, participated in the organization of activities of illegal armed formations in the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan, in supplying weapons, ammunition, explosives, military equipment to these illegal armed formations.
In addition, he financed terrorism by directing money to the organization of terrorist activities of illegal armed groups.
Ruben Vardanyan was detained on September 27 and brought to criminal responsibility as a defendant, a measure of restraint in the form of detention was chosen by court decision.
At present, investigative and operational measures continue in the criminal case,” an Azerbaijani State Security Service reports.