The former state minister of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) Ruben Vardanyan, who has been under arrest in Azerbaijan for over a year, has been isolated from lawyers hired by his family, his son David Vardanyan told the RTVI channel on Friday, December 20.

"The main problem and the absurdity of the situation is that the only representatives of father's interests who have access to him are local Azerbaijani lawyers. Our international lawyers have never been able to see father, or even contact him, which means there is a complete vacuum of information and complete isolation," says David Vardanyan.

According to him, all requests from lawyers to visit Ruben Vardanyan were “either simply ignored or rejected.” The former NKR state minister is also not allowed to be visited by “independent doctors.”

“The only thing that happened was an examination that the state hospital did after his hunger strike There were some visits made by the Red Cross, as we understand, but, again, this is not enough, because they are quite superficial,” says David Vardanyan.

Letters can also only be sent through the Red Cross, which has “very strict regulations” – no more than four pages, he said.

"They (the Red Cross - Ed.) are working as best they can, but their hands are tied there too. We can't send regular letters. As my father told me, he has sent an unlimited number of letters over the past six months. Not a single one of them has reached the addressee, which means this means of communication is also unavailable to us," said David Vardanyan.

The son of the former state minister of Nagorno-Karabakh noted that he calls his father, but they cannot discuss “any matters” over the phone. He also stated that the family is grateful to the local lawyer who “risks his life.”

David Vardanyan confirmed that his father has been handed 45 charges under 20 articles. According to him, the criminal case contains 25,000 pages in Azerbaijani, which are being translated for him by a translator appointed by the “investigator and the prosecutor’s office.”