"ARAM KARAPETIAN CONTRIBUTED TO RISE OF LEVON TER-PETROSIAN’S RATING AND FAILED SERGE SARGSIAN’S SUCCESS," BILL OF INDICTMENT ON NZ CHAIRMAN’S CASE MENTIONS

Noyan Tapan
April 17, 2008

YEREVAN, APRIL 17, NOYAN TAPAN. The law establishes two principles
on preliminary arrest: either the act done by the arrested person,
of which he was accused, should be proved or he should be released at
the end of the preliminary arrest term. The prolongation of the term
of arrest of Aram Karapetian, the Chairman of the Nor Zhamanakner
(New Times) party, as his lawyer Haroutiun Baghdasarian said at the
April 17 press conference, is illegal, as it does not correspond
either to the first or the second principle.

The NZ leader was accused by the signs of Article 333, RA Criminal
Code, "false denunciation." And according to the lawyer, the
disk, which A. Karapetian sent to the National Security Service
with a written question about its content, became a basis for the
accusation. "The act, which he is accused of, does not contain corpus
delicti: asking a question cannot be considered a phenomenon that
can be punished by the law," H. Baghdasarian said.

He added that the bill of indictment mentions as the motive of the
false denunciation the following: "A. Karapetian with his action
contributed to the rise of rating of presidential candidate Levon
Ter-Petrosian and failed the success of another candidate, Serge
Sargsian, in the elections." For that purpose, as it was mentioned in
the bill of indictment, A. Karapetian accused S. Sargsian and former
President Robert Kocharian of "betrayal and organizing a terrorist
act." The lawyer reminded to journalists that A. Karapetian just
made an attempt to find out whether the information published in
press, according to which R. Kocharian and S. Sargsian are inclined
to exchange some liberated territories of Artsakh with Meghri,
corresponds to reality.