Epress.am News from Armenia
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned about reports that Nikol Pashinyan, an opposition activist and editor-in-chief of the independent daily Haykakan Zhamanak (“Armenian Times”), was beaten in custody and moved into solitary confinement, reads a statement on the official CPJ website.
On Tuesday, authorities moved Pashinyan into the strict-regime Artik prison. Pashinyan’s lawyer, Vakhe Grigoryan, told CPJ that the move was in retaliation for editorials Pashinyan wrote from prison and published in Haykakan Zhamanak. He wrote about alleged corruption in the Armenian penitentiary system, Grigoryan told CPJ.
Before Pashinyan was moved to Artik, he was serving a four-year prison term (3.5 years plus 5 months served pre-trial) in Kosh prison outside of Yerevan, for allegedly organizing mass riots spurred by flawed February 2008 presidential elections in Armenia. According to Grigoryan, prison authorities had repeatedly ordered Pashinian to stop writing, but he continued. Shortly before he was moved to Artik, Pashinyan said, he was physically attacked in his cell and beaten by two masked men on November 11, the Armenian service of the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported (Azatutyun Radio).
“We are concerned about reports that Nikol Pashinyan was abused in retaliation for his critical commentary on prison conditions, and we call on Armenian authorities to conduct an independent investigation into the matter,” CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. “We call on Armenian penitentiary service officials to guarantee Pashinyan’s safety and to improve his prison conditions.”
Prison authorities denied the attack happened, and said that Pashinyan’s medical exam had not revealed any signs of the alleged beating, local press reported. An independent exam was not conducted. Authorities announced today that Pashinyan was transferred because he had allegedly violated unspecified prison rules at Kosh on multiple occasions, and because he had argued or fought with inmates, the independent Caucasus news website Kavkazsky Uzel reported.
Authorities arrested Pashinyan in July 2009 and convicted him in January 2010 on charges of organizing riots in March 2008 in the capital, Yerevan, local and international press reported. Ten people died and many more wounded after the opposition protests against fraudulent presidential elections turned violent. Pashinyan was sentenced initially to seven years in jail; the sentence was later reduced by half, according to local press reports.