{"id":283685,"date":"2018-02-15T15:18:39","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T11:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/epress.am?p=283685"},"modified":"2018-02-15T15:18:39","modified_gmt":"2018-02-15T11:18:39","slug":"trials-over-political-oppositionists-in-armenia-reminiscent-of-stalinist-repressions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2018\/02\/15\/trials-over-political-oppositionists-in-armenia-reminiscent-of-stalinist-repressions.html","title":{"rendered":"Trials Over Political Oppositionists in Armenia \u2018Reminiscent of Stalinist Repressions\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/epress.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/sefilyan.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-283677\" src=\"http:\/\/epress.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/sefilyan.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The trial over opposition Founding Parliament group leader and Karabakh War veteran Zhirayr Sefilyan is a classic case of political persecution, his lawyer, Arayik Papikyan, stated at a press conference in Yerevan on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe charges against Sefilyan are based on his public statements and opinions voiced at press conferences, all of which were made in 2014. A year later &#8211; in 2015 &#8211; Sefilyan is facing charges because \u2018your 2014 statements contained elements of crime that showed you wanted to seize power or provoke mass riots.\u2019 Dear National Security Service, Investigative Committee and Special Investigation Service, if Sefilyan made these public calls in May or November 2014, they why did you suddenly decide to press charges only a year later. This is undoubtedly political reprisal,\u201d Papikyan insisted.<\/p>\n<p>Recall, according to the prosecution, <span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #003366;\" href=\"http:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2016\/06\/22\/authorities-want-to-isolate-sefilyan-from-society-lawyer-says.html\">Sefilyan<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, who was arrested on June 20 2016, had allegedly formed an armed group, plotting to organize an armed takeover of the capital&#8217;s important communication buildings and structures, including Yerevan\u2019s television tower. The prosecutor has demanded an 11-year prison sentence for the oppositionist.<\/p>\n<p>Human rights defender Avetik Ishkhanyan, in turn, stated that the trials over oppositionists in Armenia \u201care reminiscent of the Stalinist repressions of 1937.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe case with <span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #003366;\" href=\"http:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2017\/01\/18\/human-rights-advocates-declare-armenian-opposition-activist-prisoner-of-conscience.html\">Gevorg Safaryan<\/a><\/strong><\/span> and putting up a Christmas tree [on Yerevan\u2019s Freedom Square]. There were 4 other people there at the time, but only Safaryan was detained. <span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #003366;\" href=\"http:\/\/epress.am\/2017\/07\/13\/%D4%B1%D5%B6%D5%A4%D6%80%D5%A5%D5%A1%D5%BD-%D5%82%D5%B8%D6%82%D5%AF%D5%A1%D5%BD%D5%B5%D5%A1%D5%B6%D5%AB%D5%B6-%D5%A1%D5%BC%D5%A1%D5%BB%D5%A1%D5%A4%D6%80%D5%BE%D5%A5%D5%AC-%D5%A5%D5%B6-%D5%8D.html\">Andreas Ghukasyan\u2019s case<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, when he was detained and the other people were released. Everything indicates that the country\u2019s president has a personal vendetta against these people because they made the toughest and the most condemning statements against him over the years. It\u2019s personal revenge, plain and simple &#8211; charges cooked up from nothing, just like in 1937. This is our political reality,\u201d Ishkhanyan said. \u201cThere was an order to isolate Sefilyan. They complied with the order, but did rather a sloppy job,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Head of the Helsinki Citizens\u2019 Assembly Vanadzor Office Artur Sakunts expressed the opinion that the term \u201cselective justice\u201d should from now on be replaced with the term \u201ctarget justice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe National Security Service is a structure that persecutes political opponents. The Police and all the rest are simply tools. Reducing the National Security Service\u2019s entire objective to an operative response to the actions of political opponents is a manifestation of typical tyrannical behavior,\u201d Sakunts stated.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Head of the Helsinki Citizens\u2019 Assembly Vanadzor Office Artur Sakunts expressed the opinion that the term \u201cselective justice\u201d should from now on be replaced with the term \u201ctarget justice.\u201d<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":283676,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[66033,65966],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283685"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}