COURT AGAIN PROLONGS PRE-TRIAL ARREST OF ‘COUP PLOTTERS’
By Irina Hovannisian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
April 5 2007
A court in Yerevan has allowed the National Security Service (NSS)
to keep two nationalist opposition activists in jail for two more
months pending the politically charged investigation into their
alleged plot to overthrow the government.
Vartan Malkhasian, a leading member of a small Armenian opposition
party, and Zhirayr Sefilian, a prominent veteran of the war in
Nagorno-Karabakh, were again remanded in pre-trial custody in separate
court rulings handed down on Thursday and Wednesday respectively.
The court of first instance of the city’s central administrative
district accepted the NSS claims that the suspects will "obstruct
the investigation" if they are released on bail.
About a hundred of their supporters angrily demonstrated outside
the court house late Wednesday after the announcement of the first
ruling. Some hurled eggs at the building in protest against what they
regard as an unjust and politically motivated decision.
Police detained and questioned eleven demonstrators, among them
organizers of the protest, shortly afterwards. They were released
several hours later after providing written explanations of their
"hooligan actions."
"We find such claims absurd," Armen Yeghian, a senior member of
a Sefilian-led pressure group opposed to Armenian concessions to
Azerbaijan, told RFE/RL. "We don’t think that we broke the law with
such symbolic actions. We must fight for justice and make our voices
heard."
Yeghian and several other activists were summoned to the police for
further questioning on Thursday.
Sefilian and Malkhasian were arrested and charged with calling for a
"violent overthrow" of the government in early December just days
after setting up a new organization opposed to Armenian withdrawal
from Azerbaijani districts surrounding Karabakh. The NSS claims that
the group, called the Alliance of Armenian Volunteers (HKH), planned
to use next month’s parliamentary elections to mount an armed uprising
against the government.
Both suspects deny the charges. Armenia’s leading opposition groups
have voiced solidarity with them, condemning the case as politically
motivated.