IN DEFENCE OF SASUN MIKAELIAN
Support A1+!Residents of Vanatur Village, Kotayk Marz, held a protest action on March 24 in defence of Sasun Mikaelian. They demand an immediate release of the Armenian MP.
To remind, Armenian law-enforcement authorities announced on March 12 the arrest of Sasun Mikaelian, one of the two opposition parliamentarians who went into hiding following the deadly clashes between security forces and thousands of supporters of former President Levon Ter-Petrossian. Sasun Mikaelian was tracked down and detained by officers of the National Security in an unspecified location in Yerevan on Wednesday. He was immediately charged with organizing “mass riots” and attempting to overthrow the government.
The charges stem from the March 1 clashes in Yerevan in which at least seven protesters and one interior troop officer were killed. The Armenian authorities say the violence was part of a coup plot hatched by Ter-Petrossian and his allies. Dozens of them have been arrested on corresponding charges. As part of the crackdown, the government-controlled National Assembly stripped Mikaelian and three other deputies allied to Ter-Petrossian of their legal immunity from prosecution last week. Two of them, Miasnik Malkhassian and Hakob Hakobian, had already been detained by the police. The fourth lawmaker, businessman Khachatur Sukiassian, as well as several other prominent oppositionists remain on the run.
