Appeals Court Agrees to Wait till Pashinyan is Present

The appeal launched by the attorneys of local Armenian daily Haykakan Jamanak (“Armenian Times”) chief editor, imprisoned journalist Nikol Pashinyan began at the Court of Appeals at 2 pm today.

Pashinyan’s attorneys submitted a plea to reverse head of Aragatsotn Regional Court of First Instance Suren Mnoyan’s Nov. 19, 2010 decision, in which Mnoyan refused to annul Nubarashen penitentiary chief Tigran Navasardyan’s May 25, 2010 decision which increased Nikol Pashinyan’s term of imprisonment by about 5 months.

At the start of today’s court session, Pashinyan attorney Yervand Varosyan began with a motion to postpone the session in order to ensure the presence of his client.

Judge Eva Darbinyan asked the opinion of the other parties, who left the decision up to the court’s discretion. The judge sustained the motion, arguing that Pashinyan might not have received notice of the hearing.

The court session was rescheduled for Feb. 1 at 12 pm at Artik penitentiary (where Pashinyan is serving his sentence).

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.