MOTHER WHO FEARS FOR HER LIFE DEPORTED WITH FAMILY
By Yakub Qureshi

Manchester Evening News
April 16, 2007 Monday

AN Armenian journalist who feared for her life after revealing alleged
election fraud has been deported from Britain.

Gina Khatcharyan, 30, had been living in Bury since 2003 with her
husband Vahan and five-year-old daughter Elena while seeking asylum.

The Home Office accepted that the TV journalist had received death
threats for exposing ballot rigging in her home country – but believed
the risks to her and her family were exaggerated.

The family were placed on a flight from Heathrow destined for the
Armenian capital Yerevan, via connecting flights through Malta
and Russia.

Campaign groups, including the National Union of Journalists, had
staged a desperate attempt to apply for a delay in deportation,
but were unable to file papers in time. The Maltese authorities had
been asked to offer the family temporary asylum, but were unable
to intervene.

The family was hoping to seek leave to stay in Russia rather
than completing the final leg of the journey to Armenia, where Ms
Khatcharayan expected to be arrested on arrival. The family’s daughter
Elena had been attending classes at Heap Bridge primary school in
Bury and campaigners say English is her first language.

Sue Arnall, of the Bury Castaways asylum group, said: "I spoke with
Gina before she left and she was just desperate. She did not have a
lawyer because she had been refused legal aid.

"There was a last attempt to re-examine her case with people
contributing money to pay for a human rights lawyer but unfortunately
it was too late."

Ms Khatchatryan claims to have witnessed ballot stuffing while a
polling booth observer during local elections and said she subsequently
received death threats after alerting the authorities.

Although the central Asian country has improved its political and trade
links with Europe since leaving Soviet control in 1991, it has been
routinely criticised by international observers for electoral fraud.

It was also named as the 101st worst country out of 168 for press
freedom restrictions by Reporters without Borders in 2006.