Azerbaijan Puts Armenian Ex-Leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh on Trial

Ex-Moscow investment banker Ruben Vardanyan and 15 other Armenian leaders of the formerly contested Nagorno-Karabakh region went on trial in Azerbaijan on Friday.

Vardanyan is being tried separately from the other defendants, who include three former presidents of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic as well as ex-ministers of defense and foreign affairs. He said they were all “political prisoners,” in a statement published on social media ahead of the hearings on charges that include financing terrorism and war crimes, which they deny.