Armenia’s Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) Arman Tatoyan questioned the legality of the arrest of four Armenian soldiers who returned from Azerbaijani captivity, stating the arrest grounds are unconvincing.

In a public post on Facebook on Thursday, he said it is about the soldiers who were taken prisoner after the Azerbaijani military attack on Armenia on November 14 and 16 and then were returned.

Tatoyan noted that the Human Rights Defender's Office will study the circumstances of the soldiers' captivity, the actions ascribed to them and then submit the results in writing to the law enforcement agency dealing with the case.

In his words, statements by a number of senior members of the executive and legislative bodies of Armenia, which are not related to criminal proceedings and violate the presumption of innocence of detained soldiers.

"The statements were made before the servicemen returned from Azerbaijani captivity and were biased. They violate human rights and are illegal. Moreover, they were widely disseminated in Armenian and international media," Tatoyan wrote.

He stressed that these public statements have had an impact on the investigative body.

Tatoyan noted that there is abundant evidence of the Azerbaijani military’s crimes against Armenian captives. Therefore, the human rights defender will demand a written explanation as to what measures have been taken by the investigative body to reveal violations of the rights of servicemen, identify the perpetrators and hold them to account.

“This this statement does not call into question the launch of criminal cases or criminal prosecutions under the articles in question. It is about the legality of the imprisonment of four servicemen who returned from captivity,” the ombudsman said.