Pashinyan Chronicles: Imprisoned Journalist’s Appeal is Denied

Discussion of the appeal by Haykakan Jamanak (“Armenian Times”) chief editor, imprisoned opposition journalist Nikol Pashinyan took place at Artik penitentiary today. Presiding Judge Eva Darbinyan ruled against the appellant.

As previously reported, Pashinyan was appealing to overturn a Nov. 19, 2010 ruling in the Aragatsotn Court of First Instance by Judge Suren Mnoyan, who had refused to annul Nubarashen penitentiary chief Tigran Navasardyan’s May 25, 2010 decision, in which he, calculating Nikol Pashinyan’s prison term, added about 5 months, setting it at 3 years, 10 months and 29 days.

Pashinyan’s attorney, Yervand Varosyan, presenting his arguments related to the court ruling, said that the decision to overrule the appeal was obvious. According to him, Pashinyan’s being imprisoned was again used against him.

Pashinyan, in turn, said that in the Republic of Armenia, a court as such doesn’t exist, since the courts are part of the system that violates human rights.

Note, Pashinyan, 35, was among several prominent opposition figures who went into hiding in March 2008 following a government crackdown on supporters of former president Levon Ter-Petrossian demanding a re-run of a disputed presidential election. He surrendered to the authorities in July 2009 and was subsequently sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of stirring up “mass disturbances” in Yerevan that left ten people dead.

The oppositionist will have to serve only half of the prison sentence because of a general amnesty declared by the authorities in June 2009. Both he and Ter-Petrossian’s Armenian National Congress consider the case politically motivated.