Azerbaijan Claims to Have Returned All Prisoners of Armenia

Azerbaijan's Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mamedov stated during a speech at the International Criminal Court that Azerbaijan has allegedly returned all prisoners to Armenia. This was reported by the APA news agency.

"Azerbaijan has returned all prisoners to Armenia; the remaining individuals are accused of serious crimes," Mamedov mentioned in his speech. According to Mamedov, accusations of racial discrimination against Azerbaijan from Armenia are unfounded.

"All prisoners of war, as well as most of the detainees, have been returned to Armenia. The remaining individuals are still in prison for serious crimes, including torture and murder, as well as war crimes, terrorism, and separatism," he stated, adding that their arrest is unrelated to racial discrimination.

It is noteworthy that in an interview with Public Television on January 4, Head of the Investigative Committee of Armenia Arghishti Kyaramyan mentioned that Azerbaijan has officially confirmed information about 23 individuals held in that country, 17 of whom, according to him, were captured as a result of the aggression in 2023. Among them are former officials from Artsakh. Additionally, the Armenian side has factual data on the enforced disappearance of 32 individuals after the 44-day war; however, Azerbaijan denies these reports.

Commenting on the numerical data published by the head of the Investigative Committee, Syiranush Sahakyan noted that according to their collected data, the actual number of unconfirmed prisoners by Azerbaijan is not 32, but 80.