OPPOSITION TYCOON TO STAY IN HIDING

Armenialiberty.org
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July 29 2009

Armenia — Khachatur Sukiasian, a fugitive opposition MP and
businessman.

Khachatur Sukiasian, a fugitive businessman and opposition
parliamentarian, said through his lawyers on Wednesday that he will
not after all surrender to Armenian law-enforcement authorities
despite the possibility of being granted amnesty.

Sukiasian was among several opposition figures who went into hiding
in March 2008 to avoid prosecution for their role in post-election
demonstrations in Yerevan that were suppressed by the authorities. Like
three other members of Armenia’s parliament arrested in the government
crackdown, he was charged with plotting to "usurp the state authority"
and organizing "mass riots" that left ten people dead. State
prosecutors dropped the coup charges against them in April this year.

An amnesty bill approved by the National Assembly on June 19 gave
Sukiasian and other fugitive oppositionists until July 31 to turn
themselves in and face trial. They will be set free if found guilty
and sentenced to up to five years in prison. Two of the fugitives
have already surrendered to the police.

In a July 6 statement, Sukiasian indicated that he could emerge from
hiding and hope to avoid imprisonment. Law-enforcement officials made
clear, however, that he would be kept in detention at least until
the end of his trial.

The tycoon’s lawyers said on Wednesday that he is "not preparing"
to go on trial and risk imprisonment. "I have no problem with
surrendering to the authorities because I didn’t commit any crime
and was not stripped of my parliamentary immunity from prosecution,"
he said in a statement circulated by the lawyers.

Sukiasian and the other opposition lawmakers were stripped of that
immunity in March 2008. They say that prosecutors had to obtain a
fresh arrest permission from the National Assembly after significantly
revising the criminal cases against them in March 2008. The prosecutors
claim the opposite.

One of Armenia’s wealthiest men, Sukiasian got in trouble with the
authorities in late 2007 after publicly voicing support for former
President Levon Ter-Petrosian’s bid to return to power. Many of his
businesses were raided by tax authorities and fined for alleged tax
evasion. One of them, the Bjni mineral water company, was effectively
confiscated by the government late last year.