ARMENIAN VOTING RIGHT WILL BE SUSPENDED IN PACE?

Panorama.am
16:20 18/12/2008

The Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe (PACE) yesterday recommended suspending the voting rights
of Armenia’s delegation to the Assembly, said the Chairman of the
Delegation David Harutyunyan to "Liberty" radio station. Co-rapporteurs
John Prescott and George Colombier made a report on the implementation
process of PACE Resolutions 1609 and 1620.

David Harutyunyan said that the report has had negative colorings
regarding criminal prosecutions, but certain measures taken towards the
mass media, electoral reforms and the creation of fact-finding group
of experts have been positively assessed. "A request was made that
persons could be charged and deprived of their liberty for political
motivation. In principle, the issue needs to be additionally analyzed
and as this was the last session of Monitoring Committee before
the January plenary session, the recommendation was made but the
co-rapporteurs are going to visit Armenia in January to make some
notifications in their decision," said D. Harutyunyan.

Note that as soon as the report has been published the Foreign Minister
Edward Nalbandyan took the initiative to interpret it. "I think that
in January some developments will be the evidence of the fact that
Armenia has implemented he majority of Resolutions 1609 and 1620,"
said the Foreign Minister.