THREE LIFE PRISONERS FREED BY ARMENIA'S HIGHEST COURT

UNCLAS YEREVAN 001757 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/CARC AND DRL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM AM SUBJECT: THREE LIFE PRISONERS FREED BY ARMENIA'S HIGHEST COURT ¶1. (U) In a very surprising move, Armenia's highest court overturned the conviction and sentences of three defendants in a controversial murder case December 22. Soldiers Razmik Sargsian, Musa Serobian and Araik Zalian had been serving life sentences for the 2003 murder of two fellow servicemen in Nagorno Karabakh. The case had been built on the confession of Sargsian, which he later claimed had been obtained under torture. Sargsian was a cause celebre for Armenian human rights activists, who were left happy but dumbfounded at the acquittal. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (U) During the December 22 hearing, the Court of Cassation overturned the verdicts of two lower courts: the first instance court, which sentenced the soldiers to 15-year terms in May 2005, and the appellate court, which lengthened those terms to life imprisonment on May 30. The judge ruled that there was no evidence supporting the three soldiers' guilt. He also cited Armenia's international obligations under the recently ratified International Convention Against Torture and Inhuman Treatment, and said the government is bound to take seriously defendants' claims of mistreatment. The judge, whose son works for the U.S. Embassy, told us that Sargsian and his co-defendants remain accused for the crime, but were freed under a provision of Armenia's Criminal Procedural Code that allows the judge to send the case back to the Prosecutor General for re-investigation if he determines the original investigation was not conducted according to the law. (NOTE: This is contrary to news reports published immediately after the ruling, which said the soldiers were acquitted. END NOTE.) GODFREY