More ECHR rulings against Azerbaijan expected: lawyer

PanARMENIAN.Net - The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) judgment in the case concerning H.T., an Armenian soldier beheaded by Azerbaijani servicemen during the April War, is the second ruling against Azerbaijan related to alleged war crimes committed by Azerbaijani military personnel. This was stated by international law expert and lawyer Ara Ghazaryan, one of the applicants in the case, in a Facebook post.

He said the ECHR ruling confirms that Azerbaijan conducted what he described as a criminal war, adding that 22 more judgments involving similarly severe allegations are still pending.

“Cases of this kind usually face difficulties at the admissibility stage before the European Court because the ECHR often views violations committed during the active phase of an armed conflict exclusively through the prism of humanitarian law. However, for the second time, the Court declined to do so. Perhaps the reason was the evidence, which the legal team managed to collect, document and present to the Court in a sufficiently comprehensive manner. Or perhaps the reason was the exceptional brutality of the acts in question.

The crimes were committed on the northeastern outskirts of the village of Talish in Artsakh, where an Azerbaijani sabotage group, having bypassed the positions around Talish, ambushed a truck carrying ammunition to the front line in the morning. Most likely, it was the same group that, a few hours earlier, had committed another horrific crime by killing three elderly civilians. Investigative journalists from ‘Hetq’ decided to publish photographs of their tortured bodies worldwide, and those images changed the face of the war. People in different parts of the world came to understand that Azerbaijan was waging a criminal war and not acting in self-defense, as was being portrayed at the time, as well as in 2020 and 2023.

Azerbaijan conducted a criminal war, and rulings like this confirm it. Any judicial act issued by an international tribunal is a historical fact, and such facts can no longer be denied through narratives, false histories or fabricated agendas. Azerbaijan can oppose such international judicial acts with only one thing — decisions of its own courts. But those decisions must first meet the standards of a fair trial. So far, that has not been achieved.

There are 22 more rulings ahead involving similarly brutal facts. What will Azerbaijan counter them with?” Ghazaryan wrote.

The European Court of Human Rights has published its judgment in the case of H.T. and Others v. Azerbaijan concerning an Armenian soldier beheaded by Azerbaijani servicemen during the April War. The respondent state, Azerbaijan, must pay compensation totaling approximately €90,000 within three months.

The Court found violations relating to the right to life, concluding that Azerbaijani servicemen killed a wounded Armenian soldier who was already hors de combat. It also ruled that the suffering experienced by the family after learning of the beheading and the circumstances of the death, as well as the inability to conduct a proper burial, amounted to degrading treatment.