PRESS RELEASE
The Heritage Party
31 Moscovian Street
Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+374 – 10) 53.69.13
Fax: (+374 – 10) 53.26.97
Email: info@heritage.am; office@heritage.am
Website:

3 March 2008

Heritage MPs Address the International Community

Yerevan–On March 2, Armenian National Assembly members Miasnik Malkhasyan
and Hakob Hakobyan were arrested on suspicion of provoking disorderly
conduct during the political opposition’s recent demonstrations. Heritage
Party parliamentarians Larisa Alaverdian’s and Zaruhi Postanjian’s
subsequent attempts to visit the preliminary confinement unit of the Special
Sixth Department of the National Police, where the two deputies are
currently being detained, as well as the morgues of the Armenian capital,
have met up against administrative obstacles placed by the relevant
executive bodies. This fact stands as a severe violation of the law which
regulates the rights and privileges of members of the National Assembly.

In addition, the reports received from the legal defenders of several
arrestees allow us to assert that all of Yerevan’s detention halls are full
of people who have become the patent victims of police brutality. And this
fact is the real reason why the Heritage MPs were not permitted to visit the
above-mentioned confinement unit.

We are deeply concerned with the present condition of those who are
currently in custody, and this situation confirms the public fear that the
country’s law enforcement bodies actually do not intend to carry out a fair
and unbiased investigation into this and all other tragic events which have
taken the lives of Armenian citizens.

In view of the aforementioned, we address the world community, which is
represented here by the OSCE/PACE observation mission, and insist that
international experts also partake in the future examinations of this
national calamity.

The Heritage Parliamentary Group

Founded in 2002, Heritage has regional divisions throughout the land. Its
central office is located at 31 Moscovian Street, Yerevan 0002, Armenia,
with telephone contact at (374-10) 536.913, fax at (374-10) 532.697, email
at office@heritage.am or info@heritage.am, and website at