Former Nagorno-Karabakh army commander Harutyunyan sentenced to 5.5 years in prison
The former commander of the Nagorno-Karabakh Defence Army, Lieutenant General Jalal Harutyunyan, has been sentenced to five years and six months in prison after Armenia’s Court of Cassation upheld a lower court ruling holding him responsible for the deaths of 20 Armenian soldiers during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War.
The decision, announced on 26 September, rejected appeals filed by Harutyunyan and his defence team, making the verdict final.
The Syunik General Jurisdiction Court had originally convicted Harutyunyan of having a negligent attitude toward military service during wartime, which was upheld by the Court of Appeals.
Harutyunyan’s conviction stems from events on 12 October 2020, when soldiers under his command were killed in the village of Juvarli in the Fizuli region after allegedly being misled into an Azerbaijani ambush. In addition to the 20 fatalities, seven soldiers were wounded, and the unit was ultimately overrun and captured.
According to case details presented in court, Harutyunyan personally confirmed to his troops that the approaching soldiers were Armenians, a misjudgment that placed his unit in direct danger. The court concluded that this command error amounted to criminal negligence with deadly consequences.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
Relatives of the fallen soldiers had pressed for a thorough trial, accusing Harutyunyan of attempting to delay proceedings until the statute of limitations expired. The deadline is set to lapse on 12 October, just days after the Court of Cassation’s decision. Families of the victims have expressed relief that the case reached its conclusion before that point, though many continue to demand greater accountability from Armenia’s military leadership for their conduct during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War.
Harutyunyan and his lawyer Arsen Sardaryan have consistently denied wrongdoing. Sardaryan described the court’s verdict as ‘very unexpected’, insisting that the sequence of events was mischaracterised and that there was ‘a lot of evidence’ contradicting the prosecution’s account. Sardaryan further maintained that the order attributed to Harutyunyan had not been issued in the way witnesses claimed, and that the broader context of the battlefield situation was ignored.
This is not the first time Harutyunyan has faced scrutiny for his wartime conduct. Two sets of charges were filed against him in 2022, leading to his suspension from the post of head of Armenia’s Military Oversight Service. He had assumed that role in early 2021, shortly after recovering from serious injuries sustained during the war when the vehicle he was travelling in was struck. While he was acquitted in November 2023 of negligence charges related to a failed counterattack earlier in the war, the 12 October incident remained central to the prosecution’s case against him.
The ruling adds to a growing list of high-profile prosecutions of Armenian military officials connected to the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. In September 2022, Harutyunyan’s successor, Mikael Arzumanyan, was arrested on similar charges of negligence. Earlier in 2025, former Deputy Chief of the General Staff Tiran Khachatryan, once decorated as a National Hero of Armenia, was also detained on allegations of dereliction of duty during combat operations.
The wave of prosecutions reflects mounting pressure on Armenian authorities to account for battlefield losses in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, which resulted in thousands of deaths and Armenia’s defeat. Critics argue that the trials are selective and risk scapegoating individual commanders rather than addressing systemic failures in military planning and political decision-making. Supporters, however, say they represent a long-overdue reckoning with negligence at the highest levels of command.
Harutyunyan’s conviction also has symbolic resonance for Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, many of whom view him as both a national figure and a tragic symbol of the collapse of Armenian defences in 2020. While some see his sentencing as justice for the soldiers who lost their lives, others argue that prosecuting frontline commanders while political leaders avoid responsibility undermines broader trust in Armenia’s institutions.
Harutyunyan is set to serve his sentence in a correctional facility in Armenia. His legal team has not indicated whether they plan to pursue further avenues of appeal, such as the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
With the statute of limitations approaching and Armenia still reeling from the political and human costs of the 2020 war, the case underscores unresolved questions about accountability, leadership, and the legacy of a conflict that continues to shape Armenia’s security and political landscape.
