Epress.am News from Armenia
The European Court for Human Rights has recognized the violation of the 20-year-old Manvel Saribekyan’s rights, a resident of Ttujur village of Gegharkunik marz who died while in hostage in 2010 in Azerbaijan. The Court has obliged Azerbaijan to pay the Saribekyan family 62.000 EUR within 3 months for non-material damages and legal costs.
In “Saribekyan and Balyan vs. Azerbaijan” case, the Court established that Azerbaijan violated the Convention’s 2nd (Right to Life) and 3rd (Being Free from Toruture) articles. It was established that Saribekyan died in Azerbaijan as a result of violence. The allegations of Azerbaijan that Saribekyan had committed a suicide (by hanging himself), was found unestablished by the Court.
20-year-old Manvel Saribekyan was taken hostage in September 2010. According to relatives, he lost his way due to fog and erroneously crossed the border. The Azerbaijanian side immediately called him a saboteur and shortly after being arrested, Saribekyan was shot in a news report on ANS TV channel, where he “confessed” that he had undergone special training to carry out military sabotage in Azerbaijan.
Saribekyan died in October 2010 in Baku’s Military Police. The Azerbaijani authorities declared that he had hanged himself.
The forensic examination of the body transferred to Armenia indicated many signs of violence around his neck, head and other parts of the body. The investigation conducted in Azerbaijan had found no such traces, instead, it stated that during his arrest Saribekyan was not abused and committed a suicide in his prison cell.