Australia MP calls for immediate release of Karabakh ex-president Bako Sahakyan

Australian MP Michael Sukkar has written a letter to Azerbaijan’s Chargé d’Affaires, Vagif Jafarov, calling for the immediate release of Armenian political prisoner and former President of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), Bako Sahakyan, reports the Armenian National Committee of Australia.

In his letter, Sukkar advised the embassy of his intention to act as a sponsor for Sahakyan and urged the embassy to provide monthly updates on Sahakyans’s physical and mental well-being.

Sukkar, who is one of the over 100 Australian Friends of Artsakh, is now the second Australian elected official to sponsor an Armenian hostage illegally imprisoned by Azerbaijani authorities, since Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of the Armenian population living in Artsakh in September 2023.

In his letter to Jafarov, Sukkar said: “My decision to sponsor Mr Sahakyan comes in the wake of reports from the lawyers of Armenian political prisoners, in particular Jared Genser who wrote to the UN Special Rapporteur on torture detailing harrowing cases of inhumane treatment.”