HAK activists lodge another appeal with Cassation Court
Advocate Vahe Grigoryan today lodged another appeal with the Court Cassation, demanding that the Court review the lower court ruling in the case of the jailed opposition activists.
Earlier the Court had returned the advocate's appeal, saying the demands were not clearly formulated.
The Young activists of the opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK), Tigran Arakelyan, David Kiramijyan, Sargis Gevorgyan and Artak Karapetyan, were taken into custody after an August 2011 standoff with police officers in a Yerevan park. They were charged with hooliganism against a representative of law-enforcement body and sentenced to 2-6 years in prison. Arakelyan received the longest prison sentence for what the Armenian police say was a key role in the incident. The three activists were later released with only Tigran Arakelyan remaining in prison. All the four activists denied police claims that they attacked law-enforcement officers maintaining public order in the city center. They said they were beaten up and detained after the officers tried to arbitrarily search another man.
Later in January, the New York-based Human Rights Watch expressed serious concerns over the controversial prison sentences given to the four opposition activists.
"We are very concerned about the allegations of ill-treatment of the four defendants and the lack of an effective investigation into these allegations," said the organization.
