Armenia: Watchdog concerned at jailing of editor without bail

Text of press release by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists
(CPJ) on 7 July

The editor of an opposition daily has been jailed in the Armenian
capital, Yerevan, for more than two weeks without bail. Arman
Babadzhanian, editor-in-chief of Zhamanak Yerevan (Yerevan Times),
faces up to five years in prison for allegedly forging documents
to avoid military service, but the Committee to Protect Journalists
[CPJ] and others are concerned that the charge was prompted by his
newspaper’s critical reporting on government conduct.

Babadzhanian was arrested 26 June, just days after the
Armenian-language newspaper published an article questioning
the independence of the prosecutor general’s office, said Seda
Muradian of the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting
(IWPR), which has followed the case closely. Authorities allege that
forgeries occurred in 2002, but they did not explain the delay in
pressing charges.

Press reports said the prosecutor general summoned Babadzhanian for
questioning as a witness in a criminal case but jailed him instead
on the forgery charge. News reports said that the editor allegedly
confessed to forging documents to avoid the draft, but press freedom
and human rights groups are questioning the prosecutors’ motives.

Babadzhanian was being held today [7 July] in the Nabarashen
pre-trial detention centre in Yerevan, according to the Yerevan Press
Club. His lawyer unsuccessfully sought Babadzhanian’s release from
preliminary detention while the case was pending. CPJ sources said
that Babadzhanian could remain imprisoned without bail for weeks
before the case proceeds.

Muradian, Armenia country director for IWPR, said the prosecutor’s
refusal to grant Babadzhanian preliminary release on bail is very
unusual in this type of case. "Authorities are treating Babadzhanian
as a dangerous criminal," Muradian told CPJ.

On Wednesday [5 July], the Yerevan Press Club, Internews Armenia, the
Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression, the Helsinki Committee
of Armenia, and other local press freedom groups sent a letter to
the prosecutor general’s office seeking Babadzhanian’s release on
bail. The groups also challenged the validity of Babadzhanian’s
purported confession. Also on Wednesday, editors of seven Armenian
independent and opposition newspapers issued a statement saying
Babadzhanian’s arrest was intended to intimidate the press.

"We are very concerned that the criminal case against Arman
Babadzhanian may be related to his journalism," CPJ Executive Director
Joel Simon said today.

"We call on Armenian authorities to release him pending trial and
make their evidence against him public."

Babadzhanian’s colleagues from Zhamanak Yerevan staged protests in
front of the prosecutor general’s office for three days after their
editor was arrested, saying that the case is politically motivated
and connected to the paper’s critical editorial stance, according to
press reports.

Armenian independent press has come under pressure in recent
years. The independent television station A1+ has been refused a
broadcast licence 11 times since it was taken off the air in 2002. In
April 2005, legislation restricting press coverage of terrorism was
adopted. Retaliatory assaults against journalists continue, especially
in the provinces, and officials do little to apprehend and prosecute
the perpetrators, CPJ research shows.