ONLY RUSSIA CAN HELP: ERNEST VARDANYAN’S RELATIVES SENT A LETTER TO MEDVEDEV AND PUTIN

Tert.am
05.05.10

Gyumri-based relatives of Ernest Vardanyan – an Armenian national
journalist living and working in the breakaway region of Transdnestria
and was recently apprehended for his professional activities – have
sent a letter to Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin, asking for their personal mediation to change "arrest
as a precautionary measure" and to set him free.

"Having no other option under this situation we are turning to you, as
inflectional leaders of a world power, and to leading world political
figures and humanists, expecting your personal involvement for the
change of Ernest Vardanyan’s "arrest as a precautionary measure"
and his immediate release from the Transdnestrian prison," reads the
letter, quoted by Radio Liberty.

Vardanyan’s wife, in turn, told the Moldovan service of Radio Liberty
that she plans hiring a Russian lawyer to defend her husbands’ rights
in the court.

"Unless Russian authorities exert pressure on the Transdnestrian
authorities, this issue cannot be solved," said Irina Vardanyan,
adding that only Russia could be of help.

Vardanyan was arrested near his home in Tiraspol on April 7 allegedly
by the Transdnestrian state secrete services. He is accused of high
treason and according to Article 271 of the Transdnestrian Criminal
Code he may face 12-20 years in prison.
From: Baghdasarian