HAK activist addresses letter to U.S. Ambassador
Tigran Arakelyan, a jailed activist of the Armenian National Congress (HAK), has addressed a letter to U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Heffern. He gave the letter to his friends during yesterday's sitting in the Court of Criminal Appeal.
In the letter the HAK activist says he decided to apply to the Ambassador after reading his statement concerning ex-foreign minister Vartan Oskanian's persecution.
"My friends and I have been sent to 2-6 years in prison on trumped-up charges. You expressed your concerns over Oskanian's case but you did not even refer to the high-profile trial involving the HAK activists. Don't you think that it is bad for your country and its representation to present selective interpretation of democracy and justice?" Tigran Arakelyan said in the letter.
He also suggested that the U.S. Ambassador [or his representative] meet with the jailed activists to know the details if he does not possess enough information to express an opinion.
The letter will be disseminated by media outlets. Its copy has been sent to the U.S. official by post.
The opposition activists were taken into custody after an August 9, 2011, standoff with police officers in a Yerevan park and were immediately charged with hooliganism against a representative of law-enforcement body.
