Azerbaijan jails ex-Karabakh leader for 20 years on war crimes charge

BAKU

This handout photograph released by State Border Service of Azerbaijan on Sept. 27, 2023, shows Ruben Vardanyan, a former separatist head of Nagorno-Karabakh, detained by two Azerbaijani security officers.

Azerbaijan on Feb. 17 sentenced the former Karabakh separatist leader Ruben Vardanyan to 20 years in prison, the latest ruling against Armenian secessionists detained after Baku's takeover of the region.

Azerbaijan's seizure of its breakaway enclave of Karabakh in 2023 ended nearly three decades of control by Armenian separatists, prompting the mountainous territory's entire ethnic Armenian population, more than 100,000 people, to flee.

After regaining control of the region, Baku arrested several separatist leaders on war crimes charges. Armenia has demanded their release.

The Baku Military Court sentenced Vardanyan to 20 years behind bars "under articles of the criminal code relating to crimes against peace and humanity, war crimes, as well as articles connected with terrorism, and financing of terrorism.”

Vardanyan has rejected the charges and declared himself a political prisoner.

A former Russian banker who made his vast fortune as co-founder of the Moscow investment bank Troika Dialog, Vardanyan headed Karabakh's self-declared Armenian administration between November 2022 and February 2023 after renouncing his Russian nationality.

Forbes magazine estimates his family's wealth at $1.1 billion.

His trial opened in January 2025, separately from proceedings against 15 other former separatist officials, who were sentenced this month to terms of up to life imprisonment in a war crimes trial.

Armenia has demanded the release of the detainees and said it would pursue "all possible steps", including international legal action, to protect their rights.

Azerbaijani President İlham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a peace agreement last year, mediated by U.S. President Donald Trump.