One of Pashinyan’s Letters has been Found

One of the letters handed over to the Artik penitentiary administration by imprisoned journalist, Haykakan Jamanak (“Armenian Times”) chief editor Nikol Pashinyan turned up yesterday at the Artik division of HayPost CJSC (Armenia’s national postal operator).

According to information by Haykakan Jamanak, a number of staff of news outlets responded to Pashinyan’s message and attempted to find out from RA Minister of Justice Hrayr Tovmasyan where Nikol’s letters have gone.

As previously reported, Nikol Pashinyan had addressed his fellow journalists, urging them to assist him in reinstating his right to correspondence.

“He personally asks each of you as members of the media community and as colleagues, regardless of the differences between your and his ideas, to find out every day: did he give an envelope to Artik penitentiary administration [today]?” said Pashinyan’s attorney Vahe Grigoryan upon his client’s request.

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.