AMNESTY ‘APPLICABLE’ TO JAILED OPPOSITIONIST
Irina Hovannisian

le/1966339.html
23.02.2010

Nikol Pashinian, a jailed opposition leader, can have his harsh prison
sentence shortened by half in line with a general amnesty declared by
the Armenian authorities last June, the state human rights ombudsman,
Armen Harutiunian, said on Tuesday.

An amnesty bill passed by the National Assembly at the time
mandated the immediate release of all opposition figures that were
arrested following the March 2008 unrest in Yerevan and subsequently
sentenced to up to five years in prison. The bill also said that
other oppositionists, who received harsher punishment, can be set
free after serving only half of their jail sentences.

Pashinian was given a seven-year jail term last month for his alleged
role in the deadly clashes between opposition protesters and security
forces. A Yerevan court that handed down the controversial ruling
said nothing about the amnesty bill’s applicability to the outspoken
editor of the opposition "Haykakan Zhamanak" daily.

His lawyers believe that he does qualify for early release. They insist
at the same time that Pashinian is innocent and should not have been
imprisoned in the first place. The lawyers last week formally asked
Armenia’s Court of Appeals to clear their client of organizing the
2008 "mass disturbances" that left ten people dead and more than 200
others injured.

Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Ombudsman Harutiunian expressed
hope that the court will apply the amnesty to Pashinian in case it
upholds the guilty verdict. "The amnesty bill does apply [to Pashinian]
because it has do with [the events of] March 1," he said.

The Armenian Ministry of Justice has so far reserved judgment on the
matter, saying that judicial proceedings in the Pashinian case are
still not over.