ARMENIA RELEASES FOUR OPPOSITION LEADERS UNDER AMNESTY

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June 22 2009

YEREVAN, Armenia (AFP)–Armenia Monday released four senior opposition
figures, including a former foreign minister, convicted of organizing
mass protests last year that sparked deadly unrest.

Former foreign minister Alexander Arzumanian, two former lawmakers
and another opposition leader were released under a general amnesty
after being found guilty of organizing "mass disturbances."

The four were among seven senior opposition figures charged with
organizing the protests. One was released earlier this year and two
more are still in custody.

Dozens of opposition activists jailed after the unrest are to be
released under the amnesty, which was approved by parliament Friday.

President Serzh Sarkisian’s government has been under international
pressure to release jailed opposition supporters, including from
the Council of Europe, which has repeatedly raised concerns about
what it calls "artificial or politically motivated charges" against
opposition activists.

"Of course I am happy that my husband is being released, but I wish
that he had been acquitted rather than freed under an amnesty,"
Arzumanian’s U.S. wife, Melissa Brown, told AFP.

"We are continuing our struggle for the liberation and acquittal of
other political prisoners," she said.

The criminal charges stemmed from street battles that broke out
when riot police moved in to disperse thousands of supporters of
former Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrosian rallying to denounce
Sarkisian’s victory in a February 2008 election.

Two police officers and eight civilians were killed in the clashes and
dozens more were injured, many from gunshot wounds. Ter-Petrosian had
finished second in the vote and his supporters denounced the result
as rigged.

Armenia – a mountainous country of about 3 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.