FIFTY-FIVE CONVICTED IN RELATION TO MARCH RIOTS IN ARMENIA’S YEREVAN
Interfax News Agency
June 24 2008
Russia
As of June 20, Armenian courts had received over 100 criminal cases
related to the riots that rocked Yerevan last March, Alina Yengoyan,
the press secretary of the Armenian Court of Appeal, told Interfax.
"Fifty-six criminal cases against 63 people have been heard. Fifty-
five people have been sentenced. Twenty-five of them did not get
suspended sentences. Four not guilty verdicts were issued. Four
people received punishment other than imprisonment. Ten verdicts were
appealed," Yengoyan said.
Following the disputed presidential election of February 19, the
Armenian opposition led by former President Levon Ter-Petrosian
rejected the election results and began protests on Freedom Square. On
March 1, the protests degenerated into violent clashes with police,
leading to ten deaths and more than 250 people injured.
Armenia’s Prosecutor General Agvan Ovsepyan said earlier that a
total of 115 people were arrested in connection with the riots. Now
17 people are in custody and 78 criminal cases against 88 persons
have been sent to courts.
As of June 16, 35 people had been convicted, 14 had received prison
terms of between 1 and 5 years, 35 had been put on probation, while
three had been acquitted and 64 had pleaded guilty and testified,
Ovsepyan said.