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The arrests of Artsakh’s current and former leaders by Azerbaijan are politically motivated, human rights lawyer Siranush Sahakyan insists.

Azerbaijani authorities have arrested and charged Artsakh’s three former presidents Arayik Harutyunyan, Bako Sahakyan and Arkady Ghukasyan, former State Minister Ruben Vardanyan, presidential advisor David Babayan, parliament speaker David Ishkhanyan, as well as a former Artsakh army commander and his deputy.

"Since Azerbaijan has achieved the destruction of established statehood and the adoption of the so-called “act of self-dissolution", it is now attempting to punish those who, firstly, played a symbolic role in the formation of statehood. For example, presidents play such a role in line with the chosen model of governance, and they united the people’s struggle for the international recognition of Artsakh," Sahakyan told a news conference in Yerevan on Monday.

The lawyer stressed Baku detained all those who carried out strong pro-Armenian activities perceived by Azerbaijan as a detriment to its national interests.

"Strong Armenian statehood and its development is seen as a threat to Azerbaijani statehood," the expert stated.

Sahakyan also noted that the detainees included Artsakh military men who “symbolize victory over the Azerbaijani military”.

The lawyer pointed to Article 18 of the European Convention on Human Rights which says, “The restrictions permitted under [the] Convention to the said rights and freedoms shall not be applied for any purpose other than those for which they have been prescribed.”

Stressing that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) finds violations of other rights only in exceptional cases, Sahakyan says that so far the court has issued 27 verdicts, which record that countries have resorted to arrests, criminal prosecutions and convictions on political grounds for crimes that had no factual basis.

"The judgments in 11 out of 27 cases were issued against Azerbaijan. This means that Azerbaijan has formed a practice of fabricating politically-motivated criminal cases,” she said.

“I believe that international colleagues, when assessing the grounds of these criminal cases, will necessarily take into account the already established poor practices and lack of rule of law in general in this country," Sahakyan added.