POLITICAL PRISONER WON IN THE EUROPEAN COURT
Support A1+!The European Court upheld the claim of political prisoner and member of the “Hanrapetutyun” (Republic) party Zhora Sapeyan, who is currently in jail. He is generally known for being active and has been arrested in 2003 and 2004 as well.
Sapeyan, as well as Sargis Amiryan and Maxim Gasparyan who were also arrested in 2003, had appealed to the European Court on the occasion of the events that took place after the first round of the 2003 presidential elections.
In regard to this case, the judges had discussed the lawsuits filed against the Republic of Armenia and left for consultation on December 9, 2008. The verdict was released today and the lawsuits were upheld. Thus, the Republic of Armenia will be forced to accept that it has violated the right of its citizens to hold rallies, which is established in the 11th article of the European Convention of Human Rights and must pay 3,000 euros to each as compensation.
Attorney of the three plaintiffs in the European Court, head of the “Forum” legal center Tigran Ter-Yesayan told “A1+” that there are still cases of custody in the European Court which will be upheld because different articles of the Convention have been violated.
“A1+” asked Ter-Yesayan the reason for the decrease in the amount of compensation for the previous three cases (3,000 euros from the previous 7.5 thousand). According to the attorney, Armenia asked the court to take the global financial crisis into consideration and reduce the amount. But Tigran Ter-Yesayan said that the RA is not drawing conclusions from the verdicts that are reached and brought up the example of Zhora Sapeyan who has been sentenced once again based on the article on hooligan acts as a result of political actions. It should be noted that Zhora Sapeyan will most probably appeal to the European Court for this case as well.
