HRW demands to investigate torture of Armenian POWs in Azerbaijan

On March 19, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated that the Azerbaijani party was torturing the Armenian prisoners of war (POWs) captured in 2020 during the hostilities. Episodes of cruel and degrading treatment and torture occurred both after their capture and during transporting them to detention places, and in these places, says the HRW's statement posted on March 19 on its website.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Azerbaijan had handed over to the Armenian party all the militaries who had been captured during the battles in Nagorno-Karabakh; only "saboteurs" remain in captivity, Ilham Aliev, President of Azerbaijan, said on February 26.

Rights defenders have called on Azerbaijani authorities to investigate all the allegations of torture and bring the perpetrators to justice, as well as "immediately release all the remaining POWs and captured civilians" and disclose information about their whereabouts.

"Baku has not yet reported on the fate of a number of Armenian soldiers who went missing after they were seen captured by Azerbaijani forces," the above statement quotes Hugh Williamson, HRW's Director for Europe and Central Asia, as saying.

The HRW has interviewed four POWs who told about the cruel treatment of them and other POWs in Azerbaijani captivity. "One said that he had been stabbed with a sharp iron bar' another told how he was tortured with electric current, yet another – about repeatedly inflicting burns on him with a lighter. The first days after being captured, they were all held in conditions degrading their human dignity; they were brutally treated; there was almost no water and little or no food," the HRW has stated.

Azerbaijani authorities must provide POWs with the guarantees under the international human rights norms and the humanitarian law, including the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment, the statement says.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 20, 2021 at 03:58 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.