Masked people shot at Armen Sargsian on March 1

argsian
07:54 pm | September 25, 2009 | Politics

The only acquitted Armenian political prisoner, Armen Sargsian, was
released under a September 16 decision of the Cassation Court.

He received a missile wound in front of a Persian mosque on Mashtots
Avenue on March 1, 2008.

"I was shot by people in police uniforms and black masks. Later I
learnt that a man had been shot dead in the same place but I didn’t
know him," Armen Sargsian told A1+.

Armen Sargsian was wounded in the left foot. He was able to get to the
Erebuni hospital where he had his foot bandaged.

"On the way home, at about 2.30-3.00 a.m. police stopped the taxi and
arrested me," tells the hero of the Karabakh war and proponent of the
Pan-national Movement.

The peaceful demonstrator was charged under Article 225 of the
Criminal Code (participation in mass disorders).

"During private conversations, investigators told me they had to try
me to conceal the shot. I asked them for my left shoe as my foot was
aching but the shoe had disappeared."

Note that a court in Yerevan had sentenced Armen Sargsian to four
years in prison and the Appellate Court left the verdict unchanged.

"They acquitted me as they wanted to silence the Council of Europe. If
the authorities really want to show the progress in the country they
should release the other 19 political prisoners illegally kept in
custody," says Armen Sargsian.

After his release, Armen Sargsian attended Armenian National
Congress’s rally of September 18.

"I shall struggle until the last political prisoner is freed and until
the power is changed in Armenia. I am a war veteran and I cannot sit
with folded arms," says the former political prisoner.