Will media representatives visit Nikol Pashinyan?
A few media outlets in Armenia have addressed a letter to Minister of Justice Hrayr Tovmasyan asking him to arrange a meeting with jailed opposition activist and the editor-in-chief of "Haykakan Zhamanak" newspaper Nikol Pashinyan.
"We - the chief editors of the media outlets - want to visit our colleague, chief editor of "Haykakan Zhamanak" daily Nikol Pashinyan who is serving his prison term in Artik Penitentiary. The law envisages visits to prisoners by media representatives, and we hope you will not deny our request," reads the letter.
In January 2010, Nikol Pashinian was sentenced to seven years in prison on what he and his supporters called trumped-up charges stemming from the 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan. A Yerevan court found Pashinian guilty of organizing the "mass riots" of March 1, 2008.
The ruling disqualified Pashinian from a general amnesty declared by the Armenian authorities in June. The amnesty led to the release of dozens of other opposition members arrested following the deadly clashes between security forces and opposition protesters demanding a re-run of the February 2008 presidential election.
