SOS FROM TRANSDNIESTRIA: JOURNALIST OF ARMENIAN ORIGIN ACCUSED IN ESPIONAGE ASKS FOR HELP
Gayane Abrahamyan

ArmeniaNow reporter
03.05.10

Ernest Vardanyan, a journalist of Armenian origin, arrested on May 2,
in unrecognized Republic of Transdniestria, has appealed for help for
his wife and two under-age children, saying Transdniestria National
Security Service employees threaten to "settle a physical score"
with them, and he is being tortured.

Vardanyan, 30, was arrested on April 7, charged with espionage for
Moldova, in Transdniestria, a breakaway Moldova region (in the border
of Moldova and Ukraine) and may face 12-20 years in prison.

"In the name of all saints, please, save my wife and my children. They
make me confess that I have spied and betrayed the homeland
(Transdniestria) in favor of Moldova. They beat me periodically and
threat that they would apply to more ‘inventive’ tortures, which leave
no traces. They threaten to settle a physical score with my wife and
my children," the journalist said.

Vardanyan asks "not to believe in falsely staged interrogation videos,
and the charges with betrayal and espionage ascribed to me. Anyone
can be made confess anything here."

The Armenian journalist has freelanced for the Russian Internet news
agency Novy Region (in Transdniestria) since last year, and because
of financial problems started to work also for the Chisinau-based
newspaper Puls, which caused irritation among Transdniestria
authorities.

Many international media groups have considered the journalist’s
arrest to be illegal, appealing to set Vardanyan free.

Last week Armenia’s opposition political party, Heritage, sent a
letter to Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and a number
of PACE committee chairmen asking to support Vardanyan’s release.

According to MP Zaruhi Postanjyan, the arrested journalist is not
allowed to hire an attorney, and he is provided only with a state
attorney, whom Vardanyan’s family does not trust.

Vardanyan stated that for the sake of his family’s security, he is
ready to "plead guilty and be imprisoned as much as the special bodies
and authorities need."