Congressional leaders mark 1,000 days of Armenian POW detention

Members of Congress joined the Armenian National Committee of America on Capitol Hill to demand the immediate release of Armenian prisoners of war and civilian hostages held by Azerbaijan for over 1,000 days. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) and colleagues Judy Chu, Laura Friedman, and Jim Costa highlighted the detention of at least 19 Armenian prisoners, including eight Artsakh leaders. Sherman criticized Azerbaijan's closed-door trials that produced sentences up to life imprisonment, noting that Amnesty International called proceedings against Ruben Vardanyan "a travesty." The lawmakers tied their demands to the Sherman Amendment, advanced through the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and pointed to Azerbaijan's rejection of European Parliament calls for prisoner releases as evidence of disregard for international law.