CONVICTED ‘COUP PLOTTER’ CLAIMS ‘POLITICAL REVENGE’
By Ruzanna Stepanian
Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
Aug 14 2007
A Karabakh war veteran convicted for pushing for a violent regime
change claims the authorities have been using the penal code as a
tool for taking revenge on politicians with opposition views.
Vartan Malkhasian, a senior member of the Alliance of Armenian
Volunteers, was sentenced to two years in prison by a Yerevan lower
court last week for calling for a "violent overthrow of constitutional
order."
In an interview with RFE/RL, Malkhasian, a lawyer by training, disputed
the fairness of the application of the criminal charge against him.
Article 301 of Armenia’s criminal code envisages a fine or up to
three years in prison for such an offense. Malkhasian says it is
difficult to measure the gravity of the ‘public call’ to pass a
commensurate sentence.
"It turns out that some calls are less dangerous than others. There
is no explanation to this. My speech did not contain any calls for
violence at all," Malkhasian said. "I addressed my speech to those
who defile the country and the criminal gangs. Neither of them can
be considered as a state or constitutional order."
Prosecutors had charged Malkhasian and group leader Zhirayr Sefilian
with calling for a violent regime change in their speeches last
December during the founding congress of their pressure group. The
National Security Service claimed the two had planned to mount an
armed uprising against the government ahead of the May elections to
the National Assembly.
Sefilian, a Lebanese citizen who was a field commander during the
1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan, was later acquitted by court, but
was found guilty of a lesser charge of illegal arms possession and
sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Malkhasian is convinced that he was imprisoned for his opposition views
and for his activities as part of the movement opposing territorial
concessions to Azerbaijan.
"They have been looking for an occasion to take revenge on me, and
that occasion suited them well," Malkhasian told RFE/RL. "But we
become even more adamant under this pressure."
Malkhasian, who was once expelled from the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) for dissidence, says the party whose two
senior members were prosecuted on similar charges under the previous
administration, should have raised their voice of protest against
the persecutions.
"We hoped Dashnaktsutyun would struggle for justice, but when they
came to power it turned out they were acting against their program,"
Malkhasian said.
And Sefilian added: "I think all governments deny the presence of
political prisoners. Dashnaktsutyun is part of this government and
it is natural that they should deny it."