ANOTHER ARMENIAN OPPOSITIONIST REFUSES TO STAND FOR JUDGES
Trend News Agency
Jan 22 2009
Azerbaijan
A jailed opposition leader refused to stand up and show respect for
Armenia’s Court of Appeals as it opened hearings on his appeal against
a two-year prison sentence given to him by a lower court.
In doing that, Smbat Ayvazian of the opposition Hanrapetutyun
(Republic) followed the example of seven other prominent opposition
figures who went on what they consider a sham trial last December. The
trial has been effectively paralyzed since then.
The seven loyalists of former President Levon Ter-Petrosian, among
them three members of parliament, stand accused of plotting to "usurp
state power" and provoking the March 1, 2008 riots in Yerevan for
that purpose.
Ayvazian, whose party also strongly backs Ter-Petrosian, was arrested
on February 24 and subsequently charged with illegally possessing a
truncheon and resisting police officers. A Yerevan court found him
guilty of these accusations in November. The former minister for tax
collection appealed against the ruling, reported Armliberty.
"I don’t respect the court because there is no justice here," Ayvazian
said on Wednesday, explaining his decision not to stand up for a
panel of three Court of Appeals judges considering the case.
"You don’t need to examine anything because you are going to do what
you will be told from above," he told them. "So you can execute the
order given to you right now. I have no problem with that."
The judges construed his behavior as a "disrespectful attitude to
the court" and adjourned the trial until next Monday. "I’ll do the
same at the next session," shouted Ayvazian.
When asked by he appealed to the court in the first place, Ayvazian
said he wants to formally exhaust all possibilities of legal action
in Armenia. His lawyer, Lusine Sahakian, confirmed that he plans to
take his case to the European Court of Human Rights.
Ayvazian is among about 60 Ter-Petrosian supporters who were arrested
in the wake of the February 2008 presidential election and remain
in jail on controversial charges. A key committee of the Council of
Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) described them as "political
prisoners" last month to the dismay of the Armenian government. The
latter denies that the criminal cases against the oppositionists are
politically motivated.