Information has been received about serious injuries among Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijani prisons. Siranush Sahakyan, who represents the interests of Armenian prisoners before the European Court of Human Rights, said this, RFE/RL reports.

The human rights advocate said that although it has not been possible to independently verify the concerning reports, she considers them credible and does not rule out that the injuries may have resulted from violence.

“Families are also informing us about deteriorating health conditions. In individual cases, we have serious alerts, and if those reports are accurate, the conditions may even be incompatible with life.

“We have also received reports of serious injuries. We have no possibility of independently verifying them. Of course, I do not think the families have any motive to provide incorrect or false information, and at this point we trust that information,” Sahakyan said.

She specified that the reports include fractures. The rights advocate did not rule out that the fractures could be the result of violence.

“We do not rule it out. We cannot establish the causes, but in several cases the alerts concern an aggravation of pre-existing health conditions, while there are also cases that may suggest elements of violence or intervention,” Sahakyan said.

Relatives of Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijani prisons have themselves reported the continued deterioration of the detainees’ health.

For security reasons and to avoid possible pressure, relatives of the prisoners held in Azerbaijani prisons did not wish to identify themselves. They nevertheless warned that the health of Armenians who have spent years confined in Azerbaijani prisons without medical assistance has been worsening day by day.

The problem has been reported not only by the prisoners themselves during occasional brief telephone conversations with family members, but is also evident in fragmentary video footage from their trials published by Azerbaijani media.

Through those images, the prisoners’ families have also noticed that men who were previously healthy and physically strong have become exhausted and emaciated over several years.

“He has lost a lot of weight, he is practically skin and bones, and his lower teeth are gone as well. He does not tell us about it, but during the trial you can see that his lower teeth are missing, they have been broken,” a relative of one prisoner said.

A relative of another prisoner, who not only declined to be identified but also avoided being recorded, said that all the prisoners are now complaining about their health.

“He called and said, ‘We are in bad shape, all of us. One is complaining about his heart, another about his head. We are completely neglected,’” the relative said.

Recently, in an interview with RFE/RL, the wife of Lyudvig Mkrtchyan, who has been held in an Azerbaijani prison for six years, also warned that her husband’s health had deteriorated sharply in recent months.

According to relatives, some of the 19 Armenian prisoners have been held in Azerbaijani prisons for six years and others for around three years, and they are deprived of the opportunity to undergo medical examinations.

Siranush Sahakyan, who represents the interests of Armenian prisoners before the European Court, said there is no possibility of obtaining objective information about their health because the Armenian prisoners do not have access to independent doctors through international organizations. Therefore, information received from families has been documented and submitted to bodies that may be able to play a role.

According to the human rights advocate, those bodies have been asked to intervene or to raise these issues through diplomatic dialogue.

By August 31, Azerbaijan is required to submit a report to the European Court of Human Rights on the conditions in which Armenian prisoners are being held, including their health. According to Siranush Sahakyan, those medical documents will be compared with information received from the families.

The rights advocate said that although the European Court cannot compel Azerbaijan to provide access to independent doctors, it has required Baku to guarantee the prisoners’ health and physical integrity and to refrain from actions that could endanger their lives. For this purpose, the European Court has also requested from Azerbaijan the medical records of the Armenians held in prison.

The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee has called on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian hostages. Azerbaijan responded soon afterward. The Milli Majlis protested, claiming the resolution contained unfounded accusations and was an attempt, backed by the Armenian lobby, to exert political pressure on Azerbaijan.