A Baku court has dismissed motions filed by businessman Ruben Vardanyan, who is on trial in Azerbaijan, to summon several high-profile figures for questioning. The rejected requests included calls to interrogate Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, representatives from the OSCE Minsk Group, and officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Vardanyan, who faces charges of illegally crossing the Azerbaijani border, also formally contested the accusation against him. In a separate motion, he sought to question the commanders of the Russian peacekeeping contingent that was previously deployed in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The court denied all these petitions without examination.
The legal proceedings against the former Nagorno-Karabakh official continue as the court moves forward with the case.
