Epress.am News from Armenia
Illegal restrictions on Nikol Pashinyan’s rights have grown exponentially, said Vahe Grigoryan, Pashinyan’s representative in the European Court, speaking to journalists in Yerevan today.
According to him, the unlawful actions are mainly intended to prevent the process of Pashinyan appealing to the European Court, as well as restricting his journalistic activities.
Grigoryan said, he was not allowed to meet with Nikol “properly,” and the head of the Artik penitentiary told him meetings with Pashinyan are going to be brief. Meanwhile, according to Grigoryan, a defense attorney can meet with his client for an indefinite period of time.
Not handing over Pashinyan’s letters to the post office is considered a restriction of his journalistic activities, said Grigoryan. Furthermore, he intends to appeal to the Chamber of Advocate and the Ministry of Justice to protect his rights as counsel.
“If we look at the information publicized by the Ministry of Justice, specifically on the attacks on Pashinyan and so on, it seems that some learned to perform their official duties from the yellowed pages of textbooks. So, this is the special mark of authoritarian regimes,” he said.
Nikol Pashinyan’s wife, Anna Hakobyan, also present at the press conference, noted that this situation is aimed at not only Pashinyan, but also local daily Haykakan Jamanak (“Armenian Times”), of which Pashinyan is the chief editor, since the paper is deprived of its editorials — instead, the newspaper has been publishing Pashinyan’s articles from 2008–2009.
“In political terms, one can say for certain that the head of the penitentiary is behind all this. Standing behind him is the justice minister, followed by the appropriate advisor to the president, followed by Serzh Sargsyan. I can already foresee this scenario, with which the appeals will go. They’ll give some illogical answers, and the case will make it to court, it won’t be resolved in court and will make it to the European Court,” said Hakobyan.