PRESS-RELEASE
December 11, 2009

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Grigol Vashadze,

lies to the French parliamentarians about the case of the Javakheti
Armenian political activist Vahagn Chakhalyan

On November 25, 2009 during his visit to France, the Minister of
Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Grigol Vashadze, had a meeting with the
members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the French Parliament,
and responded to the questions of the parliamentarians.

The French parliamentarian, Chairman of the `Armenia-France
Friendship’ parliamentary group François Rochebloine asked the
Minister of Foreign Affairs to clarify the situation in Javakheti, the
region of Georgia predominantly populated by ethnic Armenians. Drawing
special attention of the Minister to the trial of Vahagn Chakhalyan,
who was arrested in July of 2008, the French parliamentarian noted, in
particular, that the Javakheti political activist was sentenced to 10
years’ imprisonment on dubious, if not trumped-up charges, and the
Court of Appeals after 15 minutes of consultation left the sentence of
the Court of First Instance intact.

Mr. Rochebloine put the Minister on notice that the father and younger
brother of Vahagn Chakhalyan were sentenced to suspended terms of
imprisonment. It was also mentioned that the Georgian justice has
flagrantly violated the right of Chakhalyan to engage a French defense
lawyer to protect his rights in court. The parliamentarian also noted
that the relevant structures of the Council of Europe and personally
the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe,
Mr. Hammarberg had already been notified on this issue.

In response to the deputy’s question, Mr. Vashadze said, particularly,
the following: "The Georgian citizen of the Armenian origin, you
mentioned, was arrested on very serious charges – he transmitted
information to a third country. I cannot mention – which one, and I
leave you to make you guess. Unfortunately, our legislation does not
allow foreign lawyers to participate in the court hearings, but they
can join the defense team as advisers. By the way, Mr. Chakhalyan,
appealing the verdict in the Supreme Court, had two or three lawyers
of different origin. Despite the biased coverage in some media,
especially – in the Armenian Diaspora, he is sentenced due to serious
allegations put forward against him and not because of his Armenian
origin, or because he was defending the rights of the Armenian
population. Had he been an ethnic Georgian, he would suffer the same
fate’.

(The full text of Mr. Rochebloine’s question and the response of the
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia is available on the official
website of the French Parliament at
-10/c0910019.asp ).

Consequently, by this statement on the Chakhalyans’ case the Minister
of Foreign Affairs of Georgia is, in fact, trying to intentionally
mislead the members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the French
Parliament and, indirectly, the international community.

Thus:

1. The assertion of Mr. Vashadze that Vahagn Chakhalyan is accused of
"transmitting information to a third country" is a complete outright
lie. In fact, the Javakheti political activist has been sentenced
solely for "possession of weapons and ammunition’, allegedly found in
his home and the office by the Georgian special forces, as well as for
"organizing activities that disrupt public order" and "hooliganism
against a government representative’. The last two charges are based
on the distortion of the facts of his political activity in 2005-06
aimed at protection of the rights of the Javakheti Armenian
population.

Moreover, Vahagn Chakhalyan, his father and his juvenile brother at
the time of their arrest were accused solely of `possession of arms
and ammunition’, and the other charges were added against Javakheti
political activist only after the beginning of the trial.

2. Mr. Vashadze "forgets" to mention that prior to July 2009,
participation of foreign lawyers in court proceedings was allowed by
the Georgian laws, and only after the application of Vahagn Chakhalyan
to register his French lawyer the Georgian parliament hastily passed
the law removing this provision form the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Based on the aforementioned facts and having reasonable concern that
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia spreads such flagrant
disinformation with respect to Chakhalyan’s case also on other
relevant occasions, the `Yerkir’ Union calls on the European and
international structures concerned about the problems of Javakheti
Armenians and the fate of Javakheti political leader to continue
raising consistently the questions during all the contacts, taking
place with the Georgian officials.

YERKIR UNION
Contact Armenia: Robert Tatoyan
Mobile: +(374 94) 36 17 93
E-mail: <mailto:rob@yerkir.org> rob@yerkir.org

Contact Europe: <mailto:contact@yerkir.eu> contact@yerkir.eu

From: Baghdasarian