ARRESTED OPPOSITIONIST FORMALLY INDICTED
By Astghik Bedevian
Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
May 10 2007
Aleksandr Arzumanian, a former foreign minister striving for regime
change in Armenia, was remanded in pre-trial custody on Thursday after
being formally charged with politically motivated money laundering.
A court in Yerevan allowed the National Security Service (NSS) to keep
Arzumanian in detention for two months as part of an ongoing criminal
investigation into the alleged financing of his Civil Resistance
Movement by a fugitive Russian-Armenian businessman. The ruling came
after a brief hearing held behind the closed doors.
Arzumanian was arrested on Monday two days after NSS officers searched
his Yerevan apartment and confiscated $55,4000 kept there.
They also confiscated a comparable amount of cash from the Yerevan
apartment of Vahan Shirkhanian, another movement leader and former
government minister.
The investigators have so far refrained from formally accusing or
arresting Shirkhanian, however. They say the two oppositionists have
received a total of $180,000 from Levon Markos, an ethnic Armenian
citizen of Russia who is opposed to the Armenian government. Both
men deny receiving any cash from Markos and claim that the case is
politically motivated.
"Naturally, my client pleaded not guilty to the accusations and
refused to give testimony [in the court,] saying that the case is
politically motivated," Arzumanian’s lawyer, Hovik Arsenian, told
RFE/RL. Arsenian also alleged political motives behind the case,
saying that the authorities are thereby trying to hold the radical
opposition in check.
The lawyer claimed on Wednesday the NSS lacks the evidence to prosecute
Arzumanian and will likely release him.