OFFICIAL DENIES POLITICAL REASONS FOR KEEPING EDITOR IN JAIL
By Karine Kalantarian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Aug 3 2007
The head of a state commission empowered to parole convicts in Armenia
on Friday flatly denied any political motives behind its refusal
to free Arman Babajanian, the imprisoned editor of a pro-opposition
newspaper.
Hovannes Hunanian, who is also deputy chief of the Armenian police,
argued that the commission has consistently blocked an early release
from prison of all individuals convicted of draft evasion ever since
it began its work in September last year.
Babajanian was arrested in June 2006 and subsequently sentenced to
three and a half years in prison for illegally avoiding compulsory
military service. Last month, he served one third of the sentence and,
in accordance with Armenian law, became eligible for parole.
In an interview with RFE/RL on Wednesday, Babajanian claimed that
the commission rejected his parole appeal at the behest of President
Robert Kocharian.
Hunanian dismissed the claim. "The commission has operated since
September and during all this time it has considered dozens of cases
of draft evasion applying for parole," he told a news conference.
"None of them has been set free by the commission."
"So I think Arman Babajanian should not have been an exception to
that rule," he said.
The police general revealed that not all members of the body opposed
Babajanian’s pre-term release. "Members of the commission disagreed
on whether or not he should be freed," he said. But most of them,
he added, believe that draft evasion is a crime "dangerous for the
public."
Babajanian, meanwhile, has asked a Yerevan court to overturn the
parole rejection. He says Hunanian’s commission should not have decided
his fate in the first place because it was formed by Kocharian after
his arrest.