"THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY HAS GOT A DEFINITE ORDER"

A1+
06:57 pm | April 06, 2009

Politics

"The National Assembly is subject to criminal idleness," Heritage Party
MP Larissa Alaverdyan said to A1+. The reason for Mrs. Alaverdyan’s
indignation was the parliament’s refusal to put a number of draft
bills on the agenda, as well as the indifference towards the fate
of the arrested deputies Miasnik Malkhasyan, Sasun Mikayelyan and
Hakob Hakobyan.

Today the Heritage demanded the NA Speaker to convene a sitting and
cancel a NA decision according to which the Armenian parliament was
to deprive the inviolability of the arrested MPs.

"The National Assembly does not deal with legal matters," NA Speaker
Hovik Abrahamyan said in reply.

"If the NA doesn’t deal with legal matters, as you say, what matters
does it deal with? Yes, I do think that the National Assembly became an
accomplice of a crime which resulted in the detention of our colleagues
on baseless charges and already on non-existent articles. This is
a crime.

Hovik Abrahamyam may say that unless the court has proved the guilt
or innocence of the detained MPs, we are doves of innocence, but we
must not forget that thanks to the National Assembly today we have
three captive deputies and one on the run," added Mrs. Alaverdyan.

"Not only the Heritage but also the PACE co-rapporteurs demand
application of Articles 225 and 300," reminded Mrs. Alaverdyan.

Another Heritage member, Zaruhy Postanjyan, thinks the National
Assembly doesn’t want to convene a sitting, hear the detained MPs
and restore their inviolability as it is solving an issue bound to
the parliament. "The National Assembly has a definite "order"-to keep
the political prisoners charged with the "case of seven" in custody.

With regard to the separation of the cases, Mrs. Postanjyan said
neither the prosecutor’s office nor the court had a right to file
new charges against the defendants and divide the case into five parts.