Nagorno-Karabakh president pardons convicts who tried to kill him

Associated Press Worldstream
September 17, 2004 Friday

YEREVAN, Armenia — The president of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh
region on Friday pardoned a group of people convicted of trying to
kill him.

Among those pardoned by President Arkady Gukasian was Samvel Babaian,
the enclave’s former defense minister, whom a court named the
mastermind of the assassination attempt.

In March 2000, a group of assailants sprayed Gukasian’s car with
bullets, wounding him in both legs.

Gukasian on Friday pardoned 13 people and softened punishment for
another 22, but refused clemency to 16 other convicts.

Nagorno-Karabakh, a mostly ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan,
waged a 1988-1994 war against Azerbaijan in which its forces, backed
by Armenia, won control of almost 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory.

No political settlement has been reached in the conflict, and small
clashes have continued at a no man’s land around the enclave.