Thursday,
Former Yerevan Mayor Indicted
Armenia - Yerevan Mayor Taron Markarian speaks at an election campaign rally in
the city's Erebuni district, 21Apr2017.
A law-enforcement agency has brought criminal charges against Yerevan’s former
Mayor Taron Markarian and three other former government officials.
The Investigative Committee claimed on Thursday that Markarian abused his had
powers to sell three plots of municipal land to his cronies from in 2011-2014.
The land belonging to public schools was privatized at knockdown prices, it said
without specifying financial details of those deals.
In a statement, the committee said that two other former senior officials of
Yerevan’s municipal administration as well as Arman Sahakian, a former head of
the Armenian government’s Department of State Property Management, have been
indicted as part of the same criminal case. It did not elaborate.
Markarian’s lawyer, Benik Galstian, was quick to laugh off the accusations,
saying that his client regards them as a “farce.” He claimed investigators are
illegally refusing to share with him all materials of the case and that he does
not know “what exactly Mr. Markarian is accused of.”
In a Facebook post, Galstian also said that Markarian travelled to Moscow on
February 7 for medical treatment and returned to Armenia on February 13 two days
after being notified of his impending indictment.
Markarian, 42, served as Yerevan mayor from 2011-2018. Both he and Sahakian are
senior members of former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia
(HHK).
Markarian’s late father Andranik was Armenia’s prime minister from 2000-2007.
The latter headed the HHK until his sudden death in 2007.
Lawmaker Explains Decision To Leave Tsarukian’s Party
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - Gevorg Petrosian attends a session of the Armenian parliament, May 25,
2020.
Gevorg Petrosian, an outspoken opposition parliamentarian, said on Thursday that
he decided to leave Gagik Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) because it
has been too soft on the country’s government.
He claimed that although the BHK is part of an opposition alliance trying to
oust Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian many of its senior members have not
adequately participated in anti-government rallies held after the autumn war in
Nagorno-Karabakh.
“When I went [to opposition rallies] people shamed me, saying ‘Where is your
party? Why is it not participating in this rally?’” Petrosian told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service.
“We are accused of being false opposition. I don’t want to be labeled false
opposition,” he said.
The BHK is the sole member of the opposition alliance, called the Homeland
Salvation Movement, represented in the parliament. The movement is scheduled to
hold its next rally on Saturday. Tsarukian is expected to attend it. Like other
opposition leaders, he has repeatedly demanded Pashinian’s resignation.
Petrosian complained that other senior BHK figures did not like his harsh
anti-government rhetoric. He said they did not stand by him when a leading
member of Pashinian’s My Step bloc demanded recently an end to his derogatory
attacks on Pashinian and other senior officials.
Petrosian announced his decision to leave the BHK and remain in the parliament
as an independent deputy on Tuesday.
The BHK spokeswoman, Iveta Tonoyan, said afterwards that the decision took her
and her colleagues by surprise. She said that Petrosian did not discuss his
grievances with them.
Petrosian’s exit reduced to 23 the number of seats controlled by Tsarukian’s
party in the 132-member National Assembly.
The 48-year-old lawmaker has already had a turbulent relationship with the BHK
leadership in the past. He left the party in 2010 but rejoined it five years
later. He was expelled from the party ranks in 2016 only to be elected to the
parliament on BHK ticket the following year.
Another Sarkisian Trial Defendant Dies
• Artak Khulian
Armenia -- President Serzh Sarkisian (R) and Agriculture Minister Sergo
Karapetian (L) visit Armavir province, April 7, 2011.
An Armenian court on Thursday again adjourned a trial of former President Serzh
Sarkisian following the death of another defendant.
Sergo Karapetian died early in the morning as a result of what the director of a
Yerevan hospital described as “complications” caused by the coronavirus. The
72-year-old had served as Armenia’s agriculture minister from 2010-2016 during
Sarkisian’s rule.
Karapetian’s former deputy and another trial defendant, Samvel Galstian, died
from COVID-19 one month ago.
Sarkisian, Karapetian, Galstian and two other men went on trial on corruption
charges one year ago.
Sarkisian stands accused of giving privileged treatment in 2013 to his longtime
friend and businessman Barsegh Barseghian which allegedly cost the state over $1
million in losses. According to prosecutors, he made sure that a government
tender for supplies of subsidized diesel fuel to farmers is won by Barseghian’s
Flash company, rather than another fuel importer that offered a lower price.
The ex-president rejects the accusations as politically motivated. They are
reportedly based on Karapetian’s incriminating pre-trial testimony against him.
The former minister was jeered by Sarkisian supporters who gathered outside the
court building at the start of the trial in February 2020. He repeatedly refused
to talk to reporters about the high-profile case.
The judge presiding over the trial has held few hearings on the case over the
past year due to the frequent absence of defendants and their lawyers.
Sarkisian, who ruled the country from 2008-2018, remains the chairman of the
Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). HHK representatives have said he was indicted
in December 2019 in retaliation for his public criticism of Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian. Law-enforcement officials and Pashinian’s political allies have
denied that.
Pashinian has repeatedly implicated Sarkisian, his family and political
entourage in corruption both before and after coming to power in 2018.
Prosecutors Seek To Criminalize Defamation Of Armenian Officials
• Artak Khulian
Armenia -- Riot police guard the entrance to the Office of the
Prosecutor-General during an anti-government protest in Yerevan, January 28,
2021.
In a move condemned by press freedom groups, Armenian prosecutors have drafted
legislation that would make defamation of government, law-enforcement and other
state officials a crime punishable by up to two years in prison.
All forms of defamation were decriminalized in Armenia in 2010 during the rule
of former President Serzh Sarkisian. The move was recommended by the Council of
Europe.
A bill circulated by the Office of the Prosecutor-General and posted on a
government website on Wednesday says that slander and insults directed at state
officials performing their duties have become commonplace and must be
criminalized. It says that individuals making slanderous claims through mass
media or other public channels must face up to two years’ imprisonment and heavy
fines.
Armenia’s leading media organizations expressed serious concern over the bill on
Thursday, saying that it could be used by the authorities as a “tool” against
legitimate criticism. In a joint statement, they described it as a “logical
continuation” of recent legislative measures aimed at restricting press freedom
in the country.
The statement pointed to the Armenian parliament’s decision last week to approve
a fivefold increase in maximum legal fines set for defamation as well as
pro-government lawmakers’ separate proposal to make it harder for journalists to
use anonymous sources.
“We are expressing our disappointment with the fact that the authorities formed
as a result of the 2018 revolution are planning unacceptable restrictions on the
freedom of expression,” stated the 11 organizations.
“We do not want at all to defend slanderers and offenders,” they said. “But we
find it necessary to remind that representatives of the authorities, officials
and public figures must show utmost tolerance towards any criticism.”
The prosecutors’ initiative has been effectively endorsed by the Armenian
Ministry of Justice. But it is not yet clear whether Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s government will back the proposed criminalization of defamation.
Some parliamentarians affiliated with Pashinian’s My Step bloc said last week
that they would hail such a measure.
Daniel Ioannisian of the Union of Informed Citizens also criticized the
prosecutors’ bill on Thursday, saying that it could result in media censorship.
“You will definitely find no European or democratic country that makes it a
crime to insult or slander authorities but not [ordinary] citizens,” Ioannisian
told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“True, there are countries, including democratic ones, where defamation is a
criminal offense … But there is no [democratic] country where insulting
authorities is deemed a crime but insulting citizens is not,” he said.
Ioannisian said the authorities should tackle instead the spread of false
information by anonymous or fake social media accounts.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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