Human rights lawyer Siranush Sahakyan has said that at least 80 Armenians captured by Azerbaijan have been subjected to enforced disappearance since the end of the Second Karabakh War in the fall of 2020.

Sahakyan said Thursday, August 1 that there are persons whose capture Azerbaijan does not want to confirm. In that case, she said, the work becomes twice as complicated, because it is necessary to prove that they are alive and are in Azerbaijan, and only then work towards their release.

“In the context of human rights, there is a right to truth. Regardless of what undesirable developments have taken place, the state has an obligation to investigate and tell the truth to the families,” Sahakyan said, according to PastInfo.

“Prolonged uncertainty makes these families victims of another human rights violation, i.e. torture, and they are subjected to long-term mental suffering, something that is also legally and internationally recognized.”

According to her, the missing persons comprise a third group. According to Sahakyan, the difference between the enforced disappeariance and missing in action is that in the case of the former, there are facts that the person was captured, but in the case of the second, there is no such evidence.