Today, on November 4, 2021, the ECHR published the cases of Mamikon Khojoyan and Karen Petrosyan, imprisoned (arrested) respectively on January 28, 2014 and 07.08.2014 by Azerbaijani officials.
The applicants, Hasmik Khojoyan, Heghine Vardazaryan and Haykaz Khojoyan (now deceased), are three Armenian nationals who were born in 1964, 1967 and 1959, respectively. The case concerns the captivity and alleged ill-treatment of the applicants’ father, Mamikon Khojoyan, in Azerbaijan in early 2014. The applicants’ father left his home in Armenia, close to the border with Azerbaijan on the morning of 28 January 2014. It was reported in the Azerbaijani news two days later that he was an armed guide of an Armenian sabotage group and was being detained. He was handed over to the Armenian authorities on 4 March 2014 and died at home ten weeks later. Relying on Article 2 (right to life), Article 3 (prohibition of torture), Article 5 (right to liberty and security), Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) and Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the European Convention on Human Rights, the applicants allege that their father was tortured during his captivity, including severe beatings, being burnt with incandescent metal and drug injections, which had posed a danger to his life and which had not been investigated, that he was unlawfully deprived of his liberty, that they did not have an effective legal remedy and that the alleged violations occurred as a result of discrimination based on ethnic origin. Violation of Article 2 (right to life) in respect of Mamikon Khojoyan Violation of Article 2 (investigation) in respect of Mamikon Khojoyan Violation of Article 3 (prohibition of torture) on account of Mamikon Khojoyan’s torture No violation of Article 3 in respect of the applicants Violation of Article 5 in respect of Mamikon Khojoyan Just satisfaction: non-pecuniary damage: 40,000 euros (EUR) jointly to the applicants costs and expenses: the Court rejected the applicants’ claim for costs and expenses