WHICH GOVERNMENT ACCEPTS THAT THERE ARE POLITICAL PRISONERS IN THE COUNTRY?

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26 June, 2007

Arman Babajanyan, editor-in-chief of "Zhamanak-Yerevan" newspaper
was detained a year ago.

He was sentenced to 3.5 years of imprisonment for fabricating documents
and avoiding military service.

Today representatives of legal NGOs, opposition parties and journalists
discussed the issue of political prisoner Arman Babajanyan. Nikolay
Baghdasaryan, lawyer of Arman Babajanyan says that the law on
alternative military service was denied to his defendant.

"There was a clear explanation that Mr Babajanyan was sick. Besides
he was ready to pay the fine", said Mr Baghdasaryan. According to the
RA General Prosecutor’s Office, 2067 people were given the opportunity
to pay the fine and not to be detained.

The lawyer tries to find out why the law referred to 2067 people
but not to Arman Babajanyan. Nikolay Baghdasaryan mentioned that the
international structures, particularly, the Freedom House mentioned
in its report that the punishment was too strict, while the US State
Department qualified him as a political prisoner.

The lawyer has applied to the European Court of Human Rights. "If
it turns out that the punishment was for being a journalist, Armenia
will suffer", said Mr Baghdasaryan.

Artak Zeinalian, member of the "Republic" party, pointed out that
Arman Babajanyan was chosen as a victim first and then recognized
guilty. Avetik Ishkhanyan, Chairman of Armenian Helsinki Committee,
agreed with that. "That was a preliminary alarm to punish a printed
media representative".

"Arman Babajanyan was persecuted. Why he? Because he was a
journalist. He was a free journalist. He was arrested by political
decision and will be released by political decision. He will
be detained again if no political decision is made", said David
Shahnazaryan, President of "Concorde" Centre.

By the way, reflecting on Tigran Tororsyan’s statement that there were
no political prisoners in Armenia, Avetik Ishkhanyan noted that no
government accepted that there were political prisoners in the country.

That is accepted only by the society and judicial persons.