The Baku Military Court sentenced former Nagorno-Karabakh state minister Ruben Vardanyan to 20 years in prison on charges including crimes against peace and humanity, war crimes, terrorism and financing of terrorism on February 17.

Vardanyan’s case was separated from those of 15 other Armenian defendants whose trials had continued for more than a year, according to OC Media. Those 15 individuals were accused of committing 2,548 crimes, including genocide, slavery, enforced disappearances, torture, financing terrorism and forming a criminal association. Unlike the other detainees, Vardanyan was represented by an international lawyer alongside his local defence team.

On February 5, the same court sentenced five former Nagorno-Karabakh officials to life imprisonment, while two former presidents received 20-year terms due to their age. Seven other defendants were handed prison sentences ranging from 15 to 19 years. Vardanyan was the final defendant to be sentenced.

He was detained in September 2023 while attempting to leave Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia following Azerbaijan’s final military offensive in the region and the subsequent Armenian capitulation.

In his closing statement on February 10, delivered at the final hearing before the verdict, Vardanyan said he refused “to participate in the imitation of justice”, according to OC Media. An audio recording of the statement was later shared by his family.

During the address, Vardanyan referred to Armenia–Azerbaijan relations and the prospects for peace, as the two countries move towards signing a peace treaty that was initialled in August 2025. He said peace would require “a major internal rebirth” and could exist only “when there are two equal neighbours”.

He argued that peace would not be sustainable if one side humiliated itself before the other and said long-term stability depended on restoring self-respect while pursuing rational coexistence in the region.

Vardanyan also addressed the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, referring to it by its Armenian name Artsakh and stating that it “was, is, and will be, existentially speaking”. He said the issue was not one of legal form but that it could not be erased.

He added that he would seek during his lifetime to ensure that “the three leaders of the three parties to the conflict lay flowers at the graves of the fallen, of any nationality, any religion, and apologise to all the mothers for their children’s deaths”.

Vardanyan criticised the proceedings, saying Azerbaijan had not taken the opportunity to conduct what he described as a proper trial that could have contributed to long-term peace. Instead, he characterised the process as an “unprofessional show” that did not benefit any side.

During the trial, Vardanyan declared two hunger strikes in protest, calling the proceedings a “farce” in messages conveyed through his lawyer. In February 2025, he wrote that the hearings constituted “a political show” in which his right to a fair trial was being disregarded.

Following the verdict, Vardanyan’s family described the ruling as “devastating, though not unexpected”. In a statement, they alleged that he had been denied due process guarantees, including meaningful access to legal defence, contact with his international counsel and independent media access to the hearings, which they said were held behind closed doors.

The family said they would continue efforts to secure his release and that of other Armenian detainees whom they described as being held on politically motivated grounds in Azerbaijan.