EX-MILITARY OFFICIAL JAILED FOR SCANDALOUS LEAK
RFE/RL
04 May 2010 18:52
RFE/RL — A former senior Defense Ministry official was sentenced to
two years in prison on Tuesday for disclosing a secret government
order that sanctioned the Armenian military’s involvement in the
suppression of the 2008 opposition protests in Yerevan.
A district court in Yerevan also gave a one-year suspended prison
sentence to one of Armen Sargsian’s former subordinates, Lyusia
Ayvazian, who admitted giving him a copy of the order signed by then
Defense Minister Mikael Harutiunian.
It was published by the pro-opposition daily "Haykakan Zhamanak" last
December. Sargsian, who headed the Defense Ministry’s construction
department until September 2008, and Ayvazian were arrested shortly
afterwards. Sargsian subsequently admitted leaking what the authorities
consider a state secret to the paper.
Harutiunian’s written directive was issued in February 2008 immediately
after the outgoing President Robert Kocharian ordered Armenia’s top
security officials to thwart what he called attempts by opposition
leader Levon Ter-Petrosian to "seize power by illegal means." Kocharian
referred to non-stop demonstrations staged by Ter-Petrosian following
the hotly disputed February 19 presidential election.
The directive placed Armenia’s armed forces on high alert and ordered
the Defense Ministry to form special groups of officers and hand
them weapons. Harutiunian also instructed the then commander of the
army’s Yerevan garrison, General Yuri Khachaturov, to form a special
command structure with essentially unlimited control over military
units stationed in and around the Armenian capital.
Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK) denounced the leaked
document as illegal, saying that the so-called "administration of
garrison commander" effectively assumed the powers of the army’s
General Staff in violation of Armenia’s constitution. The Armenian
government rejected these claims in a February letter to the opposition
alliance.
Both Sargsian and Ayvazian pleaded guilty to criminal charges leveled
against them as their trial got underway on April 23. "I am asking
you to take into consideration my background, family situation and
hand down a just verdict," Sargsian told the judge in his final court
speech on Tuesday.
The plea fell on deaf ears, with the court deciding to free only
Ayvazian. Sargsian’s lawyer, Hovik Arsenian, condemned the ruling,
saying that his client is no more guilty than the other defendant
and should have been treated accordingly.
"We are seeing a violation of not only judicial but ethical norms,
which means that the prosecuting side is executing an order and doesn’t
care about the defendant’s reputation and health condition," Arsenian
charged in a bitter verbal exchange with the chief trial prosecutor,
Aram Amirzadian.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service moments later, the lawyer
denounced the high-profile case as "fabricated." He said Sargsian
pleaded guilty only in the hope of avoiding imprisonment.