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AUTHORITIES PRESS COUP CHARGES AGAINST WAR VETERAN
By Astghik Bedevian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Dec 12 2006
Law-enforcement authorities on Tuesday pressed coup charges against
a prominent Lebanese citizen of Armenian descent who was arrested at
the weekend for allegedly plotting to overthrow Armenia's government.
Zhirayr Sefilian, the leader of a nationalist group opposed to Armenian
concessions to Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, appeared
to have avoided deportation from the country and looked set to stand
trial there instead.
The National Security Service (NSS) says Sefilian, a veteran of
the 1991-1994 war in Karabakh, set up a clandestine organization to
mount an armed uprising against the government during parliamentary
elections due next spring. Dozens of its alleged members were also
briefly detained over the weekend.
A court in Yerevan was considering behind the closed doors late
Tuesday the NSS's request to keep Sefilian under arrest pending
investigation. The suspect was expected to be remanded in pre-trial
custody.
The NSS's decision to formally charge Sefilian with publicly calling
for a "violent change of constitutional order" suggested that he will
not be deported from Armenia despite claims to the contrary made by
his friends and associates.
"I rule out his deportation," Sefilian's Lebanese-Armenian wife,
Nanor Parseghian, told RFE/RL earlier in the day. "First of all,
because his passport's validity period has expired and no third
country will agree to take him in and transfer to Lebanon."
The case against the decorated war veteran was condemned by more
than a dozen Armenian opposition parties. In a joint statement issued
late Monday, they accused the authorities of stifling dissent ahead
of the upcoming elections and demanded his immediate release from jail.
A similar statement was also released by 18 members of Armenia's
parliament, most of them representing opposition factions. Three of
them also offered to pay bail on Sefilian's behalf.
The inquiry was launched by the NSS under an article of the Armenian
Criminal Code that was invoked by state prosecutors in their
controversial criminal case against the country's leading opposition
groups that tried unsuccessfully to topple the government with a
campaign of street protests in spring 2004.
By Astghik Bedevian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Dec 12 2006
Law-enforcement authorities on Tuesday pressed coup charges against
a prominent Lebanese citizen of Armenian descent who was arrested at
the weekend for allegedly plotting to overthrow Armenia's government.
Zhirayr Sefilian, the leader of a nationalist group opposed to Armenian
concessions to Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, appeared
to have avoided deportation from the country and looked set to stand
trial there instead.
The National Security Service (NSS) says Sefilian, a veteran of
the 1991-1994 war in Karabakh, set up a clandestine organization to
mount an armed uprising against the government during parliamentary
elections due next spring. Dozens of its alleged members were also
briefly detained over the weekend.
A court in Yerevan was considering behind the closed doors late
Tuesday the NSS's request to keep Sefilian under arrest pending
investigation. The suspect was expected to be remanded in pre-trial
custody.
The NSS's decision to formally charge Sefilian with publicly calling
for a "violent change of constitutional order" suggested that he will
not be deported from Armenia despite claims to the contrary made by
his friends and associates.
"I rule out his deportation," Sefilian's Lebanese-Armenian wife,
Nanor Parseghian, told RFE/RL earlier in the day. "First of all,
because his passport's validity period has expired and no third
country will agree to take him in and transfer to Lebanon."
The case against the decorated war veteran was condemned by more
than a dozen Armenian opposition parties. In a joint statement issued
late Monday, they accused the authorities of stifling dissent ahead
of the upcoming elections and demanded his immediate release from jail.
A similar statement was also released by 18 members of Armenia's
parliament, most of them representing opposition factions. Three of
them also offered to pay bail on Sefilian's behalf.
The inquiry was launched by the NSS under an article of the Armenian
Criminal Code that was invoked by state prosecutors in their
controversial criminal case against the country's leading opposition
groups that tried unsuccessfully to topple the government with a
campaign of street protests in spring 2004.