ARMENIAN OPPOSITION JOURNALIST JAILED OVER UNREST

Hurriyet
Jan 21 2010
Turkey

An Armenian court sentenced an opposition journalist to seven years
in prison for his involvement in mass post-election protests that
sparked deadly unrest, a court spokeswoman said.

Nikol Pashinian, a prominent opposition figure and editor of the
Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper, was convicted on charges of "organizing
mass unrest", Yerevan district court spokeswoman Alina Engoian told
AFP. Pashinian was a key organiser of opposition protests following
President Serzh Sarkisian’s victory in a February 2008 election.

Street battles broke out when riot police moved in to disperse
thousands of supporters of former Armenian president Levon
Ter-Petrosian, who came second in the vote. Two police officers
and eight civilians were killed in the clashes and dozens more
were injured, many from gunshot wounds. Pashinian went into hiding
following the unrest, but turned himself in to authorities in July. He
ran unsuccessfully in a parliamentary by-election earlier this month
in an attempt to gain immunity from prosecution.

A spokesman for Ter-Petrosian’s opposition Armenian National Congress
said the sentence flew in the face of Armenian law and the country’s
international commitments. "This is lawlessness. This shows how the
current regime flouts not only the law, but resolutions of the Council
of Europe, which has called for people who did not carry out violent
acts and who presented themselves before the law to be acquitted,"
said the spokesman, Levon Zurabian.

Rights body the Council of Europe has repeatedly raised concerns about
what it calls "artificial or politically motivated charges" against
opposition activists related to the unrest. Armenia – a mountainous
country of about three million people wedged between Azerbaijan,
Georgia, Iran and Turkey – has seen repeated political violence and
post-election protests since gaining independence with the Soviet
Union’s collapse in 1991.