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ARMENIA ARRESTS TWO MORE ACTIVISTS IN POST-ELECTION TURMOIL
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Presidential Bulletin
March 11, 2008
Russia
Armenia's National Security Service said it has arrested another two
opposition activists linked to the mass protests of the official
results of the February 19 presidential election, which remain
the subject of a bitter dispute between former President Levon
Ter-Petrosian and the authorities.
According to the official results, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan
won the election, beating Ter-Petrosian, who claims the election
was rigged. His supporters began mass riots, which resulted in a
state of emergency being declared in Yerevan by incumbent President
Robert Kocharian.
The two arrested activists are Ararat Zurabian, chief executive of
the Armenian Pan-National Movement party, and Alexander Arzumanian,
a former foreign minister, the service told Interfax.
The Office of the Prosecutor General told Interfax that neither
Zurabian nor Arzumanian had been charged yet.
However, Arman Musinian, spokesman for Ter-Petrosian's election
campaign, told Interfax that both faced charges of attempts at
"usurpation of state authority."
The Office of the Prosecutor General said that 59 people had been
charged by March 8 in connection with the riots.
Arrest warrants have also been issued for two men who have been
stripped of their immunity as members of parliament - Khachatur
Sukiasian and Sasun Mikaelian - and one of the most active figures
in Ter-Petrosian's election campaign, Nikol Pashinian, editor of the
opposition newspaper Haikakan Zhamanak (Armenian Times).
The authorities are still looking for all three.
Police told Interfax that Sukiasian and Mikaelian were charged with
organizing mass riots and coup attempt and that Pashinian was charged
with "violence against a person vested with state authority."
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Presidential Bulletin
March 11, 2008
Russia
Armenia's National Security Service said it has arrested another two
opposition activists linked to the mass protests of the official
results of the February 19 presidential election, which remain
the subject of a bitter dispute between former President Levon
Ter-Petrosian and the authorities.
According to the official results, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan
won the election, beating Ter-Petrosian, who claims the election
was rigged. His supporters began mass riots, which resulted in a
state of emergency being declared in Yerevan by incumbent President
Robert Kocharian.
The two arrested activists are Ararat Zurabian, chief executive of
the Armenian Pan-National Movement party, and Alexander Arzumanian,
a former foreign minister, the service told Interfax.
The Office of the Prosecutor General told Interfax that neither
Zurabian nor Arzumanian had been charged yet.
However, Arman Musinian, spokesman for Ter-Petrosian's election
campaign, told Interfax that both faced charges of attempts at
"usurpation of state authority."
The Office of the Prosecutor General said that 59 people had been
charged by March 8 in connection with the riots.
Arrest warrants have also been issued for two men who have been
stripped of their immunity as members of parliament - Khachatur
Sukiasian and Sasun Mikaelian - and one of the most active figures
in Ter-Petrosian's election campaign, Nikol Pashinian, editor of the
opposition newspaper Haikakan Zhamanak (Armenian Times).
The authorities are still looking for all three.
Police told Interfax that Sukiasian and Mikaelian were charged with
organizing mass riots and coup attempt and that Pashinian was charged
with "violence against a person vested with state authority."