OPPOSITIONIST FREED PENDING TRIAL
Ruben Meloyan

Armenialiberty.org
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Aug 6 2009

An Armenian opposition activist was released from pre-trial detention
late on Wednesday one week after surrendering to the police to face
trial on charges stemming from last year’s post-election unrest
in Yerevan.

Hamlet Hovannisian was among prominent supporters of opposition leader
Levon Ter-Petrosian who went into hiding following the March 1, 2008
clashes between security forces and opposition protesters. Like other,
arrested oppositionists, they were charged with organizing what the
Armenian call "mass disturbances."

Hovannisian, who coordinated Ter-Petrosian’s 2008 election campaign
in the northern Lori region, turned himself in on July 30 one day
before the official deadline set for fugitive oppositionists willing
to be granted amnesty. Under a government-drafted amnesty bill passed
by parliament on June 19, they will be set free if found guilty and
sentenced to up to five years in prison.

A Yerevan court agreed to order Hovannisian’s release jail pending
trial after his face-to-face interrogations with a man whose
pre-trial testimony formed the basis of the criminal case against the
oppositionist. The man, Vrezh Nikolian, was sentenced to six and a
half years in prison last year for manufacturing metal objects that
were allegedly meant to be used by opposition protesters against riot
police. He claimed in his pre-trial testimony that he was commissioned
to do that by Hovannisian.

Both Hovannisian and his defense lawyer, Hovik Arsenian, said
on Thursday that Nikolian retracted that claim during the joint
interrogation. "The main accusation has not been proven," Hovannisian
told RFE/RL. "I think that’s what made them free me for now."

There are no indications yet that Armenia’s Special Investigative
Service (SIS), which has been leading the criminal investigation into
the 2008 unrest, intends to drop the case against the retired army
colonel. The SIS has also pressed similar charges leveled against
two other oppositionists that came out of hiding earlier in July.