An Azerbaijani military court sentenced an Armenian separatist leader to life imprisonment on Thursday, in the latest war crime trial against an official from its formerly breakaway Karabakh region, state media reported.
Azerbaijan's seizure of the mountainous region in 2023 ended nearly three decades of control by Armenian separatists, prompting the enclave's entire ethnic Armenian population -- more than 100,000 people -- to flee.
Araik Harutyunyan -- who led Karabakh's separatist government from May 2020 to September 2023 -- "was sentenced to life imprisonment by Baku's military court", state news agency Azertag said.
He was convicted of "crimes including waging an aggressive war, genocide, terrorism and other offences linked to Armenia's decades-long control of the mountainous enclave", the agency said.
After regaining full control of the disputed Karabakh region in a lightning offensive in September 2023, Baku arrested several of its separatist leaders on war crime charges.
Armenia has denounced the arrests and demanded their release.
Two trials -- one for 15 former officials, another for the region's billionaire former leader Ruben Vardanyan -- opened in Baku in January 2025.
Verdicts for the other defendants in the case are expected later on Thursday.
Hearings have largely been held behind closed doors, with access limited to state media.
Armenia's foreign ministry has said it will pursue "all possible steps", including international legal action, to protect the rights of those standing trial in Baku.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a peace agreement last year under mediation from US President Donald Trump.
