Interfax News Agency, Russia
March 14 2008
Armenian opposition party contests imposition of state of emergency
YEREVAN
The Armenian opposition party Heritage has filed a suit with the
Administrative Court to have the presidential decree imposing the
state of emergency in Yerevan on March 1, 2008 qualified as unlawful.
"The Heritage party believes that the decree suspends the activities
of democratic institutions. In particular, it restricts the media and
goes against Armenian law and the European Convention on Human
Rights," the party’s press service told Interfax.
"This completely paralyzed the publication of independent and
opposition newspapers and the work of web-pages, which grossly
violates people’s rights to receive unbiased and comprehensive
information," it said.
The Heritage party has asked the court to invalidate the decree
imposing the state of emergency as "surpassing the framework of the
law and disproportional to the situation."
The party also asked the court to ban the president of Armenia from
imposing any new restrictions on the people’s constitutional rights
and ordered urgent judicial hearings on this issue. va rp