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PUBLIC "SECRET": LATEST CASE OF ILLEGAL TAPING IS A REPEAT OFFENSE IN ARMENIAN POLITICS
By GAYANE ABRAHAMYAN
ArmeniaNow
18.12.12 | 14:05
NAZIK ARMENAKYAN
The secret recording and dissemination of the private conversation
between former foreign minister Vartan Oskanian and Armenian National
Committee coordinator Levon Zurabyan has been qualified among the
political circles of Armenia as "a common thing for the pre-election
period". Despite being a major violation of constitutional rights
and a respective law of the criminal code, it is the third such
known incident.
According to information from Oskanian's office, the conversation
took place at an open-air cafe, Rich, by Swan Lake next to Liberty
Square, downtown Yerevan. The cafe has only open-air facilities and
has been closed since late October; hence the conversation is at
least a month-old.
Non-official sources say the "elite" cafe partly belongs to Republican
MP Samvel Alexanyan, or his entourage, who is reportedly a frequent
visitor.
Attorney Tigran Ter-Yesayan, leading Forum legal center, says the
cafe cannot be held legally liable, especially that the conversation
was by a table in an open area.
"Unless it is proved that the cafe had arranged the secret recording,"
Ter-Yesayan told ArmeniaNow.
Oskanian and Zurabyan talked sitting at an open-air table, and the
high quality of the recording that has no interfering street noise
suggests it was done professionally.
The National Security Service (NSS) yesterday (Monday) refuted all
accusations. However, no case has been filed based on the involved
law-makers' statements.
Press secretary of the Prosecutor General's office Sona Truzyan says
"the individual has to report a crime, that's the required procedure
from physical persons."
Meanwhile in their condemning statements both Zurabyan and Oskanian
emphasized that the prosecution had to file a case.
"Not to allow the authorities to avoid liability I suggest the
prosecution accept this statement as a crime report. I demand criminal
prosecution of those who bugged, recorded and publicized the audio
material," stated Zurabyan, and added:
"If no perpetrators are disclosed, it will mean it has been done by
the special services," he said, calling for a probe to be launched
into the incident.
This unusual practice of bugging conversations in the pre-election
period started in Armenia in 2007 and the first to "fall victim"
to it was former parliament speaker (currently Secretary of the
National Security Council) Artur Baghdasaryan. His cafe conversation
with a British diplomat was secretly recorded and made public, in
which Baghdasaryan was saying that the West had to condemn election
violations. Back then, too, the violation of privacy, protected by
article 23 of the Constitution and punishable by article 146 of the
Criminal Code, remained unpunished.
Moreover, the then president Robert Kocharyan deprecated the law-maker
and called him a "traitor" based on the bugged conversation.
Baghdasaryan, too, back them made condemning statements, however no
crime report was submitted. Heghine Bisharyan, member of Rule of Law
party country under Baghdasaryan's leadership, said that "there is
no rule of law in this country. They are both the perpetrators and
the punishers. Who should we turn to? Report to them and demand that
they punish themselves?"
By the law "Illegal violation of the citizen's secrecy of
correspondence, telephone conversations, postal, telegraph or other
communications, is punished with a fine in the amount of 50 to 100
minimal salaries, or correctional labor for up to 1 year." Point 2
of the same law says: "The same action committed by abuse of official
position, is punished with a fine in the amount of 100 to 300 minimal
salaries, or with deprivation of the right to hold certain posts or
practice certain activities from 2 to 5 years, or with arrest for
the term of 1 to 2 months."
The second incident occurred in 2008, during the post-election
developments, when telephone conversations between opposition leader,
first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan and former foreign minister
Alexander Arzumanyan were wiretapped, although NSS grounded it by a
court decree based on a "threat of coup d'etat".
"It was unacceptable then, and is unacceptable now. It's purely KGB
(soviet intelligence) style. If this time they [NSS] claim it's not
them, then they should disclose those behind it," Arzumanyan told
ArmeniaNow.
Attorney Ter-Yesayan says any case of wiretapping or bugging is
illegal, however believes that "this time it might not be NSS but a
result of pure curiosity".
"The content of the conversation is so 'beaten' that I doubt NSS
would disseminate such a thing. They are publicly known figures, and
information technologies are so developed now and there is so much
professional equipment on sale everywhere, that a slightly interested
person could have easily done it," he says.
The lawyer says that it's a long procedure to get a license for
wiretapping, and the court would grant permission only on serious
grounds.
Oppositional Heritage party MP Ruben Hakobyan, however, counters
that "we live in such a country, that anyone can wiretap whoever and
wherever they want, without special permission, and stay unpunished
just like in the previous cases".
From: A. Papazian
By GAYANE ABRAHAMYAN
ArmeniaNow
18.12.12 | 14:05
NAZIK ARMENAKYAN
The secret recording and dissemination of the private conversation
between former foreign minister Vartan Oskanian and Armenian National
Committee coordinator Levon Zurabyan has been qualified among the
political circles of Armenia as "a common thing for the pre-election
period". Despite being a major violation of constitutional rights
and a respective law of the criminal code, it is the third such
known incident.
According to information from Oskanian's office, the conversation
took place at an open-air cafe, Rich, by Swan Lake next to Liberty
Square, downtown Yerevan. The cafe has only open-air facilities and
has been closed since late October; hence the conversation is at
least a month-old.
Non-official sources say the "elite" cafe partly belongs to Republican
MP Samvel Alexanyan, or his entourage, who is reportedly a frequent
visitor.
Attorney Tigran Ter-Yesayan, leading Forum legal center, says the
cafe cannot be held legally liable, especially that the conversation
was by a table in an open area.
"Unless it is proved that the cafe had arranged the secret recording,"
Ter-Yesayan told ArmeniaNow.
Oskanian and Zurabyan talked sitting at an open-air table, and the
high quality of the recording that has no interfering street noise
suggests it was done professionally.
The National Security Service (NSS) yesterday (Monday) refuted all
accusations. However, no case has been filed based on the involved
law-makers' statements.
Press secretary of the Prosecutor General's office Sona Truzyan says
"the individual has to report a crime, that's the required procedure
from physical persons."
Meanwhile in their condemning statements both Zurabyan and Oskanian
emphasized that the prosecution had to file a case.
"Not to allow the authorities to avoid liability I suggest the
prosecution accept this statement as a crime report. I demand criminal
prosecution of those who bugged, recorded and publicized the audio
material," stated Zurabyan, and added:
"If no perpetrators are disclosed, it will mean it has been done by
the special services," he said, calling for a probe to be launched
into the incident.
This unusual practice of bugging conversations in the pre-election
period started in Armenia in 2007 and the first to "fall victim"
to it was former parliament speaker (currently Secretary of the
National Security Council) Artur Baghdasaryan. His cafe conversation
with a British diplomat was secretly recorded and made public, in
which Baghdasaryan was saying that the West had to condemn election
violations. Back then, too, the violation of privacy, protected by
article 23 of the Constitution and punishable by article 146 of the
Criminal Code, remained unpunished.
Moreover, the then president Robert Kocharyan deprecated the law-maker
and called him a "traitor" based on the bugged conversation.
Baghdasaryan, too, back them made condemning statements, however no
crime report was submitted. Heghine Bisharyan, member of Rule of Law
party country under Baghdasaryan's leadership, said that "there is
no rule of law in this country. They are both the perpetrators and
the punishers. Who should we turn to? Report to them and demand that
they punish themselves?"
By the law "Illegal violation of the citizen's secrecy of
correspondence, telephone conversations, postal, telegraph or other
communications, is punished with a fine in the amount of 50 to 100
minimal salaries, or correctional labor for up to 1 year." Point 2
of the same law says: "The same action committed by abuse of official
position, is punished with a fine in the amount of 100 to 300 minimal
salaries, or with deprivation of the right to hold certain posts or
practice certain activities from 2 to 5 years, or with arrest for
the term of 1 to 2 months."
The second incident occurred in 2008, during the post-election
developments, when telephone conversations between opposition leader,
first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan and former foreign minister
Alexander Arzumanyan were wiretapped, although NSS grounded it by a
court decree based on a "threat of coup d'etat".
"It was unacceptable then, and is unacceptable now. It's purely KGB
(soviet intelligence) style. If this time they [NSS] claim it's not
them, then they should disclose those behind it," Arzumanyan told
ArmeniaNow.
Attorney Ter-Yesayan says any case of wiretapping or bugging is
illegal, however believes that "this time it might not be NSS but a
result of pure curiosity".
"The content of the conversation is so 'beaten' that I doubt NSS
would disseminate such a thing. They are publicly known figures, and
information technologies are so developed now and there is so much
professional equipment on sale everywhere, that a slightly interested
person could have easily done it," he says.
The lawyer says that it's a long procedure to get a license for
wiretapping, and the court would grant permission only on serious
grounds.
Oppositional Heritage party MP Ruben Hakobyan, however, counters
that "we live in such a country, that anyone can wiretap whoever and
wherever they want, without special permission, and stay unpunished
just like in the previous cases".
From: A. Papazian