ZHIRAYR SEFILIAN CONSIDERS HIS INTENTION TO CONTROL PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS TO BE IMMEDIATE REASON FOR HIS ARREST

Noyan Tapan
Mar 06 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 6, NOYAN TAPAN. "The immediate reason for my arrest is
the coming parliamentary elections: we were at some extent ready to
prevent falsifiers." Zh.Sefilian gave such a response to the written
question "Which are the main reaons for Your Arrest" of the deputies’
group formed on the case of Zhirayr Sefilian, the coordinator of
the "Defence of Liberated Territories" public initiative. As Armen
Aghayan, the temporary coordinator of the initiative stated during the
"round table" organized on March 6, Zh.Sefilian finds that besides his
intention to control the elections, the rumours about returning the
liberated territories, close ties and cooperation with national forces
of Javakhk and some opposing parties of Armenia became a reason for
isolating him from the society. In attorney Vahe Grigorian’s words,
preliminary investigation bodies did not present any serious reasoning
on the occasion of prolonging his defendant’s arrest. In his words,
the only reasoning is that foreign citizen Zh.Sefilian maybe will take
to flight, appearing in liberty. RA NA deputy Hmayak Hovhannisian
mentioned that the situation created round Zh.Sefilian obliges
to think not only about the latter’s setting free, but also about
preventing similar phenomena in the future. In the deputy’s words,
he was present at the last meeting of the initiative and the sharp
speeches and sharp estimations made there may not become a basis
for arresting a person. In H.Hovhannisian’s words, Article 301 of
the RA Criminal Code which defines responsibility for capturing the
state authorities by violence and for calls addressed to bring down
the constitutional order, is not proper for a country going in the
democratic way. Drawing parallels between Article 301 of the Criminal
Code of Turkey (envisaging responsibility for injuring Turkishness)
and Article 301 of the RA Criminal Code, he mentioned that "Armenia
must get rid of that article earlier than Turkey."