OMBUDSMAN OF ARMENIA: NIKOL PASHINYAN MAY BE GRANTED PARDON
ArmInfp
2010-02-19 15:54:00
ArmInfo. Editor-in-Chief of the oppositional Haykakan Zhamanak
(Armenian Time) Daily may be granted pardon, says Armenian Ombudsman
Armen Haroutyunyan’s statement disseminated by the Office of the
Armenian Human Rights Defender on Friday.
According to the statement, pardon may be granted to the persons
sentenced for 5-10-year imprisonment for being privy to the 1-2
March 2008 events under Clause 7 Subclause 2 of the resolution
"On proclamation of amnesty". Taking into account the specified
circumstance, the ombudsman thinks that in case the judgement of
the general jurisdiction court fails to be canceled, amnesty may be
applied with respect to Nikol Pashinyan.
To recall, on 19 January the court of Yerevan communities Center
and Nork-Marash sentenced Nikol Pashinyan, former candidate for MP
to 7-year imprisonment. Pashinyan was accused of applying harmless
violence against the police (Article 316 Part 1 of the Armenian
Criminal Code), and organizing mass disorders on 1-2 March 2008 in
Yerevan (Article 225 Part 1). Pashinyan had been wanted for over a year
and came out of the underground after amnesty had been proclaimed in
summer 2009. The court acquitted Pashinyan under Article 316 but found
him guilty under Article 225. Earlier, on 10 January Pashinyan lost
the parliamentary by-election at the 10th constituency in Yerevan
where he yielded his positions to Ara Simonyan, representative of
the National Unity Party.