“There are also captives who are not high-ranking officials. The capture of those individuals has been confirmed,” Argishti Kyaramian, the head of Armenia’s Investigative Committee, told reporters.
Kyaramian did not identify any of those captives. RFE/RL’s Armenian Service found out about one of them, Melikset Pashayan, last week.
Pashayan lived in the Karabakh village of Sznek. According to his relatives, he went missing while trying to help evacuate elderly and sick people unable to flee the village on their own. Pashayan’s wife said he subsequently phoned her from Baku and said he is in Azerbaijani custody.
Karabakh’s three former presidents -- Arayik Harutiunian, Bako Sahakian and Arkadi Ghukasian -- as well as current parliament speaker Davit Ishkhanian were taken to Baku to face grave criminal charges in late September. Their detentions followed the mass exodus of Karabakh’s residents that left the enclave almost fully depopulated.
Karabakh’s former premier Ruben Vardanyan, former Foreign Minister Davit Babayan, former army commander Levon Mnatsakanian and his ex-deputy Davit Manukian were arrested by Azerbaijani security forces last week while trying to enter Armenia through the Lachin corridor.
The Armenian government strongly condemned the arrests and urged the international community to help it secure the release of the Karabakh leaders. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry rejected the criticism, saying that they will go on trial for promoting separatism, organizing “terrorist acts” and participating in “aggression against Azerbaijan.”
Baku has so far acknowledged only nine Karabakh detainees. Kyaramian insisted that their confirmed number stands at 16.
The figure does not include 30 Karabakh soldiers and 12 civilians who Kyaramian’s law-enforcement agency says went missing during the Azerbaijani assault and remain unaccounted for.