CONSTITUTIONAL COURT UPHOLDS OPPOSITIONISTS’ INNOCENCE
Karine Kalantarian

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30.03.2010

Armenia’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday effectively ordered
law-enforcement authorities to formally declare innocent those
opposition figures who were prosecuted for their alleged role in the
2008 post-election unrest but then cleared of all charges for lack
of evidence.

Dozens of loyalists of opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian were
charged with organizing "mass disturbances" and even plotting to
seize power following the deadly March 2008 violence in Yerevan.

The police and other law-enforcement bodies subsequently dropped the
controversial criminal cases against some oppositionists for lack of
evidence. An article of Armenia’s code for procedural justice allowed
them to stop short of stating that those men are innocent.

Two of those oppositionists, Aram Sarkisian and Karapet Rubinian,
asked the Constitutional Court to invalidate the clause, saying
that it runs counter to the constitutionally guaranteed presumption
of innocence. The court accepted the demand in a ruling announced
on Tuesday.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers welcomed the ruling. "If there is evidence,
then there is guilt," one of them, Artak Zeynalian, told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service. "If not, there is not guilt and the formulation that
their involvement in a crime is not proven violates the presumption
of innocence."

Ara Ghazarian, the other lawyer, said the court upheld not only
Armenia’s constitution but also European conventions signed by
Yerevan. "That means we are on the right path," he said.