The trial of 16 people, including former leaders of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, has begun in Baku, Azerbaijan, after the defendants spent more than a year in pretrial detention.
The defendants are being tried on charges of terrorism, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the state of Azerbaijan, some of which can carry terms of life imprisonment.
Azerbaijan retook control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region from Armenian separatists in September 2023 following a lightning offensive. Since then, Azerbaijan and Armenia have held negotiations on a peace treaty.
Among the defendants on trial is Ruben Vardanyan, a former Russian businessman of Armenian descent who was a leader of Nagorno-Karabakh's separatist government.
Also on trial are former de facto presidents of Karabakh, Arayik Harutyunian, Arkadi Ghukasian, Bako Sahakian, former de facto Foreign Minister David Babayan, and de facto parliamentary speaker David Ishkhanian.
Three judges from the Baku Military Court conducted the hearing, which is being held in a purpose-built courtroom. Though the authorities announced the trial was open, only state media was permitted to attend the January 17 hearing.
Fifteen of the defendants are being tried together, while Vardanyan is being tried separately.
'I Reiterate My Complete Innocence'
Vardanyan is specifically accused of financing terrorism, forced deportations, torture, and illegal border crossings, as well as other crimes -- charges which he and his family deny.
"I reiterate my complete innocence and the innocence of my compatriots and demand the immediate cessation of this politicized case against us, " he said in a statement issued on the eve of the trial.
In the statement, Vardanyan said he had not been granted the opportunity to fully review the official indictment. He has also asked for an open trial and the combination of his case with that of 15 other defendants.
Prosecutors said Vardanyan had received full access to the case materials and had been granted rights to a legal defense, the use of his preferred language, and other procedural rights during the investigation.
At the first hearing on January 17, the court assigned the defendants state-appointed lawyers and translators fluent in Azerbaijani and Armenian.
The trial also features testimonies from hundreds of alleged victims, including relatives of those who died in the Nagorno-Karabakh fighting.
Baku and Yerevan were locked in conflict over Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh for years. Armenian-backed separatists seized the mainly Armenian-populated region from Azerbaijan during a war in the early 1990s that killed some 30,000 people.
Diplomatic efforts to settle the conflict brought little progress and the two sides fought another war in 2020 that lasted six weeks before a Russia-brokered cease-fire, resulting in Armenia losing control over parts of the region and seven adjacent districts.
The separatist regime in Karabakh declared its dissolution in 2023 but later renounced this decision after moving to Armenia.
The trial will resume on January 21.