news.am, Armenia
Jan 8 2010

ANC: Niko Pashinyan’s rights violated from beginning

18:09 / 01/08/2010The parliamentary candidate Nikol Pashinyan’s rights
were violated from the very beginning, as he was to have been released
immediately after he was registered by the district election
commission, ANC Chairman Levon Ter-Petrosyan stated at a rally in
support of a parliamentary candidate in the by-elections in Election
District #10.

The reasons advanced by Chairman of the RA Central Electoral Commission
(CEC) Garegin Azaryan that the CEC’s consent to Pashinyan’s arrest was
not at all necessary ` he was arrested before being registered as a
parliamentary candidate ` can hardly be considered sound. `An
official, including the CEC Chairman, can only perform duties under
law without commenting on them. Under the law a parliamentary
candidate can be under arrest only with the CEC’s consent,’
Ter-Petrosyan said.

The ANC leader called the Armenian authorities `stupid and
short-sighted,’ as they did not even failed to keep up their own image
and proved unable to realize the need for releasing Niko Pashinyan
during the election campaign. `They would with pleasure silence us,
but they want to cause as much pain as possible to their opponents,’
Ter-Petrosyan said.

`Although Nikol and another 14 of our companions are still in prison,
we are in a festive mood. I do not ant our struggle to be nervous. The
longer we struggle the more valuable will be our victory,’
Ter-Petrosyan said.

Besides Nikol Pashinyan, two other candidates are running for
Parliament in Election District #10, Ara Simonyan, a relative of
Yerevan Mayor Gagik Beglaryan, and the Marxist David Hakobyan. Nikol
Pashinyan is charged with organizing riots during the post-election
period in 2008. The Prosecution demands an 8-year imprisonment for
him. The verdict is to be returned on January 19.

T.P.