Ombudsman sends letter to international bodies over Armenian captive's death

The alleged suicide of an Armenian captive in an Azerbaijani prison has raised a lot of questions, prompting cross-accusations by Armenian and Azerbaijani high-ranking officials.

Armenia's Human Rights Defender Armen Harutyunyan has sent a letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Council for Europe Human Rights Commissioner Thommas Hammaberg, asking to find out the circumstances of Manvel Saribekyan's death.

In a press conference today, Ombudsman Armen Harutyunyan said that Armenia's Office of Human Rights Defender cannot cooperate with its Azerbaijani colleague.

"It would be desirable to work with our Azerbaijani colleague much in the same way as in case of other countries. Unfortunately, Azerbaijan's Ombudsman categorically does not cooperate with us, though we are ready to cooperate," said Mr Harutyunyan, adding that they cannot work with Azerbaijan's foreign and defense ministries either and have therefore decided to turn to international bodies.

Mr Harutyunyan said that the letter mentions that Azerbaijan has committed a few brazen violations of international humanitarian law. Particularly, the first violation, acceding to Mr Harutyunyan, is that Manvel Saribekyan was a civilian, but was presented as a "prisoner" and referred to as a "diversionist," because according to international norms a civilian cannot be considered a prisoner.

"In terms of international humanitarian law it is forbidden to take interviews even from a prisoner and present it to the world," explained he, adding that the representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross have not for 25 days had access to Saribekyan and have later been told that he has committed suicide.

"We have asked the Human Rights High Commissioner to find out with his own efforts what has really happened," added Armen Harutyunyan.

Manvel Saribekyan is an Armenian shepherd who had crossed the Azerbaijani border in search of his cattle a few months ago and been seized by Azerbaijani front troops. After a few months of captivity in Azerbaijani he was reported by Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry and Military Prosecutor's Office to have committed suicide on Tuesday.

Armenian side dismisses the claim about the suicide as untrue, adding he was rather killed.