Epress.am News from Armenia
Since yesterday, imprisoned opposition journalist and Haykakan Jamanak (“Armenian Times”) chief editor Nikol Pashinyan has been kept in an isolation cell in Kosh penitentiary, which testifies to the fact that there is a real threat to him, said A1+ President Mesrop Movsisyan, speaking to journalists today.
“I believe all of Nikol Pashinyan’s statements. I don’t believe that criminals are connected to the attacks against him. The criminal world has its laws, it doesn’t meddle in politics,” he said.
In Movsisyan’s opinion, even if actual criminals had any connection with the recent attacks on Pashinyan, then it was only by the government’s command.
In an article published in today’s issue of Haykakan Jamanak, Pashinyan describes the room, which is not really a prison cell, in which he is kept.
“In reality, it’s not a cell because the door doesn’t close and is open 24 hours a day. There isn’t even a lock on the door and any convict in the penitentiary can access the room whenever he wants. The same goes for prison staff,” he wrote.
Note that on Jan. 19, 2010, the Court of General Jurisdiction in Armenia found Nikol Pashinyan guilty in the mass riots of Mar. 1, 2008, following the presidential elections in Yerevan, and sentenced him to seven years’ imprisonment.
On Mar. 9, 2010, the Criminal Court of Appeal, by granting Pashinyan amnesty, cut his prison term by half. Both the defense and the prosecutor appealed this decision at the RA Court of Cassation, which revoked the appeals on May 5, 2010.
As previously reported, a dispute between Pashinyan and one of his cellmates took place on Nov. 3. According to Pashinyan, after the verbal skirmish the cellmate attacked him, and during the 15 minutes of the scramble no prison security officers approached them. This and many other facts indicate the deliberate nature of the incident, stressed Pashinyan.