Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09YEREVAN239
2009-04-02 15:13:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Yerevan
Cable title:  

AUTHORITIES DROP SOME CHARGES AGAINST LEADING

Tags:  PGOV PHUM PREL KDEM KJUS COE AM 
pdf how-to read a cable
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RR RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHNP RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHYE #0239/01 0921513
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 021513Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY YEREVAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8911
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORPORATION WASHINGTON DC
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 000239 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/01/2019
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL KDEM KJUS COE AM
SUBJECT: AUTHORITIES DROP SOME CHARGES AGAINST LEADING
OPPOSITION DEFENDANTS AFTER COE-PROMPTED CRIMINAL CODE
CHANGES

YEREVAN 00000239 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: CDA Joseph Pennington, reasons 1.4 (b,d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 000239

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/01/2019
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL KDEM KJUS COE AM
SUBJECT: AUTHORITIES DROP SOME CHARGES AGAINST LEADING
OPPOSITION DEFENDANTS AFTER COE-PROMPTED CRIMINAL CODE
CHANGES

YEREVAN 00000239 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: CDA Joseph Pennington, reasons 1.4 (b,d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: Revised Criminal Code articles -- redrafted
at the behest of PACE co-rapporteurs -- went into effect
March 24. At the April 1 session of the "Trial of Seven,"
prosecutors withdrew the Article 300 charge of "usurpation of
state power" while leaving in place slightly-reduced charges
of "inciting mass disorders." The judge also split up the
"Trial of Seven" case into four separate trial cases for
future hearings. If the PACE rapporteurs had believed that
their negotiated bargain with the GOAM would lead immediately
to the release of the seven, so far they have achieved
significantly less than that. The PACE Monitoring Group met
in Valencia, Spain, March 30, and was reportedly unimpressed
according to press reports, but we have no further details.
END SUMMARY


2. (C) CHARGES REDUCED: The revised Criminal Code articles
225 and 300 were enacted by the National Assembly March 18,
signed by President Sargisan on March 20, and entered into
force on March 24. As a result of these changes, prosecutors
entered a motion to modify the charges against the "Trial of
Seven" prominent opposition defendants during the latest
hearing April 1, and the judge approved the motion.
Prosecutors dropped the article 300 charge of "usurpation of
state power" (in other words, staging a coup). The Article
300 charge had provided for imprisonment from 10-15 years.
Authorities modified the article 225 charges to drop the
aggravating factor of "accompanied by murder," reducing the
potential sentence from that charge from 6-to-12 years in
prison to just 4-to-10 years. A significant implication of
this change is that the defendants are no longer accused of
criminal culpability for the ten deaths. (COMMENT: One
serious objection the PACE rapporteurs had had was that
authorities had effectively charged the Trial of Seven
defendants with the murder of those ten people, despite the
fact that there was no evidence to tie them directly to those

deaths and there is evidence that at least some of those
deaths were at the hands of police officers. END COMMENT)


3. (C) QUIRKS OF ARMENIAN JURISPRUDENCE: Armenian law does
not provide for consecutive sentencing; all sentences are
served concurrently. Therefore, the net result of
yesterday's modifications to the criminal charges is that the
maximum sentence that can be imposed has been reduced from 15
years to 10 years. Judicial watchers report the typical
pattern of sentencing in Armenian courts results in sentences
being notched downward a bit. For example, if the maximum
sentence for a given charge is 10 years, prosecutors at trial
will most often ask the judge to impose an eight-year
sentence. The trial judge will then often show his own
beneficence by actually imposing a six-year sentence, and the
appeals court will likely notch that back yet further to a
four-year sentence. (COMMENT: It is impossible for us to
predict whether this pattern will prevail with these
highly-charged cases. Moreover, there have been hints --
such as Parliament Speaker Hovik Abrahamian's words to the
Ambassador reftel -- that once the seven have been sentenced,
the president will be inclined to offer pardons. END COMMENT)


4. (C) "SEVEN" CASE BROKEN UP: The judge yesterday also
subdivided the "Trial of Seven" case into six different
cases. The case of Alexander Arzumanian (former foreign
minister) and Suren Sirunian will continue to proceed as a
single joint case. Each of the others will be tried
individually. Sasun Mikaelian's case has been transferred to
the Abovian district court (a town just outside Yerevan city
limits),as this was where his alleged illegal weapon on his
weapons possession charge was found. Shant Harutunian had
earlier had his case separated from the others while he
undergoes medical and psychiatric screening. (NOTE: We have
meanwhile heard that Harutunian is in good mental and
physical health, according to independent human rights
monitors who have spoken with both Harutunian and his
doctors. END NOTE)


5. (C) COMMENT: It was never clear why authorities had
packaged these seven defendants together, with four of the
highest-profile opposition defendants, combined with three
much more obscure opposition-linked figures. Similarly, it
is unclear why they have chosen to break this cohort up
again. Our guess is that authorities have re-calculated the
politics of the matter, and have concluded that the "Trial of
Seven" had become too much of a human rights cause celebre
both domestically and abroad. Authorities probably hope that
the various cases will now be less of a focus for opposition
activism, public rallies, and international criticism. The
seven defendants were probably originally conjoined into a
single case to support an invented GOAM narrative that they
represented the central cadre of a plot to depose the

YEREVAN 00000239 002.2 OF 002


government. Interestingly, the other most prominent criminal
defendant in connection with March 1-2, 2008, former Deputy
Prosecutor General Gagik Jhangirian, was never folded into
the Trial of Seven case.


6. (C) COMMENT CONTINUED: These latest developments
represent incremental improvements to the situation regarding
these opposition defendants, but are not of themselves
transformative. It is an improvement to drop the article
300 charges; given how badly and vaguely that article had
been written, authorities had been free to define that crime
virtually as they pleased. We never expected the political
problem of these opposition detainees to be fully solved by
legal manuevering. These actions seem like modest steps to
edge the GOAM closer toward a face-saving political solution
that may be yet to come, and are also intended to satisfy
PACE enough to avoid Armenia being embarrassed by Strasbourg.

PENNINGTON