COURTS RELEASE SOME DETAINEES, BUT RULE AGAINST

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 000974 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM KJUS AM SUBJECT: COURTS RELEASE SOME DETAINEES, BUT RULE AGAINST OPPOSITION BUSINESSMAN YEREVAN 00000974 001.2 OF 002 -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (SBU) In the second half of November, several Armenian courts issued rulings on cases involving high-profile opposition supporters of ex-President Levon Ter-Petrossian (LTP). Two of these cases resulted in the release of opposition supporters. In one of these, Armenia's Cassation Court vacated the two-year prison sentence of an LTP regional election campaign coordinator. Separately, a lower trial court temporarily released Armenia's former Deputy Prosecutor-General on humanitarian grounds so that he could attend his mother's funeral. Also on November 28, the Cassation Court overturned a July 1 ruling against a restaurant employee of an opposition oligarch, sending the case back to a lower court for re-examination. At the same time, however, an administrative court refused to give partial relief to Armenia's largest mineral water bottling company, owned by the same opposition oligarch, thereby upholding the USD 13.8 million fine that Armenia's State Taxation Service imposed on it in October. END SUMMARY. -------------- RELEASE OF OPPOSITIONISTS -------------- ¶2. (SBU) On November 28, Armenia's Court of Cassation ordered the conditional release of Husik Baghdasarian from further serving out his two-year prison sentence. Baghdasarian was LTP's campaign coordinator in the Ararat region, and was arrested February 26 when he was charged with the illegal acquisition, possession, and sale of weapons, ammunition and explosives. He was eventually convicted March 31 for the illegal possession of sixteen bullets, and sentenced to three years in prison. On May 21, an appeals court commuted his sentence to two years. While the Cassation Court's November 28 ruling vacated his prison sentence, it did not revoke the March 31 guilty verdict that the appeals court later upheld. After his release, Baghdasarian called the decisions of all three courts "illegal" and "brazenly false," and pledged to seek an acquittal at the European Court of Human Rights. ¶3. (SBU) Also on November 28, the Court of Cassation overturned a July 1 Criminal Review Court ruling that upheld a lower court's ruling to prolong the detention of Anoush Ghavalian, a waitress at the Pizza di Roma restaurant chain owned by the fugitive pro-opposition oligarch MP Khachatur Sukiasian. The July 1 ruling was in response to Ghavalian's lawyer's appeal that she be released from detention. Later, on November 7, Yerevan's Criminal Court eventually released her on bail. The new ruling therefore appears to call into question the basis for Ghavalian's detention by the authorities as far back as early July. Until her release, Ghavalian had been held in pre- trial detention since March 21 -- approximately seven and a half months -- pending an investigation into her alleged tax evasion and failure to report income. It is widely believed that Ghavalian was detained in order to obtain false testimony from her against Sukiasian, who went into hiding after he and three other MPs had their parliamentary immunity stripped on March 4. Ghavalian's case had drawn increasing attention for humanitarian reasons, particularly given her status as a jailed single mother and head of household with two small children and an ailing mother. ¶4. (SBU) From November 22-27, Armenia's former Deputy Prosecutor-General Gagik Jhangirian, was temporarily released on humanitarian grounds so that he could attend the funeral of his mother. His trial resumed on December 2. Jhangirian had originally been charged with attempts to usurp power and illegal possession of weapons, but later saw the charges reduced to resisting arrest. Jhangirian was detained while driving in his car during a midnight stakeout by a special SWAT- style unit of organized crime police on February 23, just hours after he had given a fiery pro-LTP speech at Freedom Square. His February 22 speech YEREVAN 00000974 002.2 OF 002 resulted in his immediate termination by then- President Robert Kocharian. Jhangirian and his proxies have alleged that the police commando unit that arrested him bore no identifiable police badges or identifying marks, and his first impression was that it was an assassination or kidnapping attempt, as opposed to a police apprehension. -------------- RULING AGAINST OPPOSITIONIST BUSINESSMAN -------------- ¶5. (SBU) On November 11, one of Armenia's administrative courts refused the request of Armenia's largest mineral water bottling company (BJNI) for partial relief from a USD 13.8 fine imposed on it by Armenia's State Taxation Service and upheld by a court ruling on October 10. Partial relief would have suspended the ongoing confiscation of BJNI's revenues, thereby allowing it to resume operations which have been idling since mid-October, and put some of its 400 workers back to work. Armenia's tax authorities allege that BJNI evaded taxes by improperly metering its water consumption. BJNI's lawyers have countered that the water meter was installed and repeatedly checked by state agencies responsible for monitoring its water usage. The administrative court's decision has been viewed as the latest salvo in the authorities' broader crackdown on businesses from the SIL Group conglomerate, controlled by Khachatur Sukiasian. (NOTE: BJNI, like Pizza di Roma above, is part of the SIL Group. END NOTE). In addition to the partial relief request, BJNI has also appealed the October 10 ruling, which has yet to be heard. BJNI's lawyer had argued that the sanctions on BJNI, in the form of confiscation of revenues, should have been postponed until the appeal court's ruling. He warned, however, that "now the company is heading for ruin." -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶6. (SBU) The series of more liberal rulings from the Court of Cassation probably reflects the influence of Arman Mkrtumain, who was appointed head of the Court by the President on September 17 after his predecessor was abruptly sacked, reportedly for corruption. The Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) recently described Mkrtumian to DCM as a strong reformer who is among a small group pressing within the Government for greater independence of the judiciary. These modest steps in the right direction lend support to the Ombudsman,s claim, and we should welcome them. The fact stands, however, that nearly seventy opposition supporters remain either in jail serving time, in detention pending the conclusion of their court cases, or in pre-trial detention nine months after the March 1-2 events. And almost all of those who have been conditionally released to date, such as Husik Baghdasarian, have seen their convictions upheld, or had various preventive measures placed on them while their cases -- and their fates -- remain in legal limbo. ¶7. (SBU) While the recent decisions are on balance good news, there is nothing to suggest that the authorities are wavering in their apparent determination to keep the vast majority of detainees in jail at least until all of their cases have moved through the court system. In our ongoing government contacts, we will recognize the modest positive steps of releasing these detainees, while pressing for more sweeping action to correct the bigger unresolved problem of politically- motivated detentions. YOVANOVITCH