Ruben Vardanyan was not allowed to appeal to Azerbaijan’s ombudsman Sabina Aliyeva, his family said in a statement.

During a phone conversation with his family on March 13, Vardanyan attempted to make a public appeal to Aliyeva, but the call was forcibly interrupted.

According to the statement, Vardanyan resorted to this step after repeated attempts over the previous 10 days to contact the ombudsman through his lawyer, written appeals and phone calls produced no results.

The family said the trials had ended about a month ago, but neither Vardanyan nor, according to their information, the other Armenian detainees have received the official texts of their verdicts in any language — Russian, Armenian, or Azerbaijani.

They also do not know under which articles they were convicted or when and where they will be transferred.

“We are deeply concerned about the situation. The absence of reliable information about Ruben and the other Armenian prisoners, as well as the elimination of independent human rights mechanisms in Azerbaijan, including the removal of the International Committee of the Red Cross from the country, deprives all detainees of any institutional protection,” the family said.

They also expressed concern that even short phone calls — currently the only remaining means of communication — could be stopped.

“We are publishing the audio recording of Ruben’s appeal to Azerbaijan’s ombudsman Sabina Aliyeva, which he was not allowed to complete. We hope it will reach the addressee,” the statement added.

Earlier, a court in Baku sentenced Vardanyan to 20 years in prison. Amnesty International described the verdict as a mockery of justice, while his lawyer Jared Genser called on Donald Trump to fulfill his public promise to help secure the release of Armenian detainees.