ARMENIAN SPEAKER HINTS AT OPPOSITION COLLEAGUES’ RELEASE
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May 18th, 2009
YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-Parliament speaker Hovik Abrahamian strongly hinted
on Monday that three of his opposition colleagues arrested following
last year’s post-election clashes in Yerevan may be released from
prison soon.
Abrahamian gave such an indication as he explained the parliament
leadership’s failure to schedule a debate on the fate of the jailed
members of the National Assembly this spring. Such a debate was
demanded by the opposition Heritage party.
The assembly had voted in March 2008 to lift Sasun Mikaelian’s,
Hakob Hakobian’s and Miasnik Malkhasian’s immunity from prosecution
after they were charged with plotting to overthrow the government
and organizing "mass riots" for that purpose. The charges stemmed
from the March 1 clashes in Yerevan between opposition protesters
and security forces.
The three lawmakers and four other opposition figures went on a
collective trial in December that was halted in March after state
prosecutors dropped the controversial coup charges brought against
them. They have since been standing separate trials for allegedly
provoking the post-election violence.
"I believe that processes are going in a positive way and that we
will have a positive result," said Abrahamian. "I am also concerned
with the fate of our three colleagues and a positive solution to
those processes."
Abrahamian declined to clarify whether that means the opposition
lawmakers’ release from jail is imminent. "Believe and trust in my
words," he told RFE/RL without elaborating.
Armen Martirosian, the Heritage Party’s parliamentary leader,
found Abrahamian’s remarks encouraging. Still, he cautioned that
representatives of the ruling coalition have made such assurances
before and that those have failed to materialize.
Meanwhile, three more witnesses in the ongoing trials of the jailed
parliamentarians retracted their pre-trial testimonies on Monday,
saying that they were forced to incriminate the defendants. One of
those witnesses, Gevorg Muradian, had testified that Hakobian had paid
him and other men to build barricades and attack security forces on
March 1, 2008.
"They beat me for three days. What else can I say?" Muradian said
on Monday, explaining his decision to renounce his signed pre-trial
claims.
Two other witnesses, Gurgen Hayrapetian and his brother Arayik,
had given incriminating testimony against Malkhasian. They claimed
on Monday that it was false and that they signed it because they did
not want to be imprisoned.