By Mark Trevelyan
(Reuters) – A former top official in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh protested on the eve of his trial before an Azerbaijani military court on Friday that he had not been given enough time to prepare his defence on 42 charges including terrorism.
Ruben Vardanyan, a former billionaire banker who was born in Armenia before making his fortune in Russia, demanded that the case be halted.
“I once again … state my complete innocence and the innocence of my Armenian compatriots also being held as political prisoners and demand an immediate end to this politically motivated case against us,” he said in a statement released via his family.
Vardanyan served as the number-two official in Karabakh from late 2022 until February 2023. Seven months later, Azerbaijan recaptured the enclave where ethnic Armenians had enjoyed three decades of de facto independence since breaking away from Baku’s control in a war that…
