Call to not break down
The committee on defense of Armenia's political prisoners and persecuted issued a statement:
"2010 January 19 marked the end of yet another phony political trial. Political figure, Editor-in-chief of "Haykakan Zhamanak" daily Nikol Pashinyan, whom the people have always known as a critic of the authorities, was acknowledged guilty and sentenced to long-term imprisonment by the verdict of an unjust court that overtly functions under the existing government.
Those who seized power by force in the wake of the 2008 falsified presidential elections have placed the issue of creating an environment of fear and horror through persecutions, assaults and sentencing of oppositionist political figures and forcing RA citizens to stop fighting for their rights.
We evaluate this nonsensical, unsubstantiated and completely unjust verdict against Nikol Pashinyan in the context of the past years, especially the past two years during which RA judges overlooked the law and rights, were guided by the instructions given by the political elite, accepted false, phony testimonies as grounds and announced verdicts that envisaged long-term imprisonment for political figures.
The committee on defense of Armenia's political prisoners and the persecuted condemns any expression of violence by the current RA authorities, be it sentencing or persecutions and calls on RA citizens not to break down, unite as one and lead the struggle for political and civil liberties to the end," as stated in the statement.
