ARMENIAN EX-FOREIGN MINISTER FACES TRIAL OVER UNREST
Mariam Harutunian
Agence France Presse
December 17, 2008 Wednesday
Seven top opposition supporters, including an Armenian ex-foreign
minister, will go on trial on Friday on charges of seeking to overthrow
the government in unrest this year that left 10 dead.
Prosecutors allege that former foreign minister Alexander Arzumanian,
three members of parliament and two other government critics were
seeking to "usurp state power" when they organised mass protests
in February.
Thousands of supporters of former Armenian president Levon
Ter-Petrosian rallied for 11 days to denounce President Serzh
Sarkisian’s victory in elections, before street battles broke out
with riot police.
Two police officers and eight civilians were killed in the clashes
and dozens more were injured, many from gunshot wounds. Ter-Petrossian
had finished second in the vote.
Critics allege that the prosecution is politically motivated and aimed
at stamping out opposition to Sarkisian in the ex-Soviet republic.
"Justice is not being served, we don’t have an independent
judiciary. This is a show trial," said Arzumanian’s American wife
Melissa Brown, who met the former diplomat while he was an ambassador
in Washington.
Arzumanian, Armenia’s foreign minister from 1996 to 1998, was
Ter-Petrosian’s election campaign manager.
The chief investigator in the case, Vahan Harutunian, said the evidence
against the accused was extensive and that prosecutors had interviewed
more than 500 witnesses.
"There is ample evidence to support the case, otherwise it would not
have been sent to court," he said.
"Even if they are politicians, they committed a crime, there is
evidence of that and they are legally responsible. Everyone is equal
before the law."
But lawyer Hovik Arsenian, who represents Arzumanian and two other
defendants, said the evidence against his clients was weak and that
he had no hope of getting an objective hearing.
"This is an imitation of a court case," he said.
"All of the so-called evidence in this case in fact proves the opposite
— the innocence of my clients…. It is obvious that this case has
nothing to do with criminal justice."
The trial will be closely watched abroad as a sign of whether Armenia
is meeting its democratic commitments.
During a visit to Yerevan last month, the Council of Europe’s
Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg raised concerns about
"seemingly artificial or politically motivated charges" against
opposition supporters, Armenian news agencies reported.
The Strasbourg-based Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
is due in January to discuss suspending the voting rights of its
Armenian members because of concerns over democracy in the country.
The defendants each face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
More than 140 people were arrested following the violence and 52 have
already been tried and received prison sentences of varying lengths.
Armenia — a mountainous country of about three million people
wedged between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran and Turkey — has seen
repeated political violence and post-election protests since gaining
independence with the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991.