AFP: Armenian opposition journalist jailed over unrest
Armenian opposition journalist jailed over unrest
Thursday, January 21, 2010
YEREVAN - Agence France-Presse
An Armenian court sentenced an opposition journalist to seven years in prison for his involvement in mass post-election protests that sparked deadly unrest, a court spokeswoman said.
Nikol Pashinian, a prominent opposition figure and editor of the Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper, was convicted on charges of "organizing mass unrest", Yerevan district court spokeswoman Alina Engoian told AFP. Pashinian was a key organiser of opposition protests following President Serzh Sarkisian's victory in a February 2008 election.
Street battles broke out when riot police moved in to disperse thousands of supporters of former Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrosian, who came second in the vote. Two police officers and eight civilians were killed in the clashes and dozens more were injured, many from gunshot wounds. Pashinian went into hiding following the unrest, but turned himself in to authorities in July. He ran unsuccessfully in a parliamentary by-election earlier this month in an attempt to gain immunity from prosecution.
A spokesman for Ter-Petrosian's opposition Armenian National Congress said the sentence flew in the face of Armenian law and the country's international commitments. "This is lawlessness. This shows how the current regime flouts not only the law, but resolutions of the Council of Europe, which has called for people who did not carry out violent acts and who presented themselves before the law to be acquitted," said the spokesman, Levon Zurabian.
Rights body the Council of Europe has repeatedly raised concerns about what it calls "artificial or politically motivated charges" against opposition activists related to the unrest. Armenia - a mountainous country of about three million people wedged between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran and Turkey - has seen repeated political violence and post-election protests since gaining independence with the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
YEREVAN - Agence France-Presse
An Armenian court sentenced an opposition journalist to seven years in prison for his involvement in mass post-election protests that sparked deadly unrest, a court spokeswoman said.
Nikol Pashinian, a prominent opposition figure and editor of the Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper, was convicted on charges of "organizing mass unrest", Yerevan district court spokeswoman Alina Engoian told AFP. Pashinian was a key organiser of opposition protests following President Serzh Sarkisian's victory in a February 2008 election.
Street battles broke out when riot police moved in to disperse thousands of supporters of former Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrosian, who came second in the vote. Two police officers and eight civilians were killed in the clashes and dozens more were injured, many from gunshot wounds. Pashinian went into hiding following the unrest, but turned himself in to authorities in July. He ran unsuccessfully in a parliamentary by-election earlier this month in an attempt to gain immunity from prosecution.
A spokesman for Ter-Petrosian's opposition Armenian National Congress said the sentence flew in the face of Armenian law and the country's international commitments. "This is lawlessness. This shows how the current regime flouts not only the law, but resolutions of the Council of Europe, which has called for people who did not carry out violent acts and who presented themselves before the law to be acquitted," said the spokesman, Levon Zurabian.
Rights body the Council of Europe has repeatedly raised concerns about what it calls "artificial or politically motivated charges" against opposition activists related to the unrest. Armenia - a mountainous country of about three million people wedged between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran and Turkey - has seen repeated political violence and post-election protests since gaining independence with the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.