Jailed Radical Opposition Leader Goes On Trial

A trial of Zhirayr Sefilian began in Yerevan on Friday almost one year after the radical opposition figure was arrested on charges of plotting an armed revolt against the Armenian government.

Sefilian, who leads the Founding Parliament opposition movement, stands accused of acquiring weapons and forming an armed group in late 2015 to seize government buildings in Yerevan. Several other suspects in the case are also under arrest and are defendants in the trial.

Justice Tatevik Grigorian, the judge presiding over the proceedings, made a decision today to adjourn the hearing as the lawyer of one of the defendants was absent. The next court hearing is scheduled for May 30.

After the court hearing Sefilian’s lawyer Tigran Hayrapetian claimed that the investigative body had failed to prove the oppositionist indeed committed the acts he is charged with.

State prosecutors claim that the alleged plot was foiled when the weapons allegedly acquired by Sefilian were discovered by the police. According to their indictment submitted to the court, some members of the armed group also refused to participate in what the prosecutor describe as Sefilian’s plan to launch an attack that would have endangered the lives of Armenian army soldiers. The investigators have not yet elaborated on this allegation.

Sefilian and other senior members of Founding Parliament deny the charges as politically motivated.

Sefilian was arrested in June 2016 less than one month before three dozen gunmen affiliated with Founding Parliament seized a police station in Yerevan. The gunmen demanded that President Serzh Sarkisian free their leader and other “political prisoners” and step down. They surrendered to law-enforcement authorities following a two-week standoff which left three police officers dead.

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«Հիմնադիր խորհրդարան»-ի հանրահավաքին այսօր ելույթ ունեցավ նաև «100-ամյակն առանց ռեժիմի»-ի շարժման առաջնորդ Ժիրայր Սէֆիլյանը, ով նշեց, որ ռեժիմը նպատակ է ունեցել իրենց մինչև 2017թ. փակել բանտերում, սակայն իրենք կարողացան դա թույլ չտալ: «Նրանք նաև հույս ունեին, որ Բերձորյան ահաբեկչությունից հետո մենք կոտրվելու էինք: Նրանք հույս ունեին, որ մեզնից շատերն առնվազն պետք է հիվանդանոցում մնային, բայց այդպես չեղավ: Նրանք ստիպված դիմեցին վերջին քայլին` բանտարկելով մեզ: Նրանց հաջողվեց մեկուսացմել մեզ և դրա հետևանքով սարսափ առաջացնել», – նշեց նա: 

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Opposition Alliance Reports Election-Related Crime

An opposition alliance has asked authorities to look into some alleged evidence suggesting that vote buying by Armenia’s ruling party during municipal elections in Yerevan earlier this month had a “systematized and centralized” nature.

Head of the parliamentary faction of the opposition Yelk alliance Nikol Pashinian on Wednesday enclosed with the application to the prosecutor-general some documents that were found in the garbage can near one of the campaign offices of the Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). (Hence, the documents in Armenia are known as ZibiLeaks).

The documents in question, Yelk says, mention the sums of money and services rendered in concrete addresses as well as instructions for campaigners for the organization of the process of distributing money among citizens.

According to the opposition bloc, police were also involved in this process, as one of the documents was faxed from a telephone number belonging to the police.

Yelk MP Edmon Marukian said that they will be consistent in ensuring that prosecutors open proceedings into the case and punish those responsible.

“We have collected this evidence and have vowed to be consistent,” he said.

Yelk polled 21 percent in the May 14 municipal elections and will form the second largest faction in Yerevan’s Council of Elders. The HHK swept the elections with over 71 percent and its top candidate Taron Markarian retained his mayoral position.

The HHK has all along denied it ever offered cash or services to voters.

Postanjian Appeals Election Body’s Decision In Administrative Court

Leader of the opposition Yerkir Tsirani party Zaruhi Postanjian on Wednesday filed an action with the administrative court to annul the results of the May 14 municipal elections in Yerevan.

Yerkir Tsirani finished third in the race of three political forces with 8 percent of the vote and will have five members in the 65-seat Council of Elders dominated by the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK).

Last week the opposition party appealed the results of the vote at the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) demanding that it annul the outcome of the elections due to “large-scale fraud implemented by the HHK with the assistance of police officers” that, according to the party, included vote buying, guidance of voters, as well as violence against Postanjian and her proxy.

The CEC turned down the application, arguing that no evidence was provided to substantiate Yerkir Tsirani’s claim.

After submitting her claim to the administrative court, Postanjian again insisted in an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) that the HHK won the elections due to fraud and pressure on voters.

“Citizens did not have the opportunity to exercise their voting right, and some, being intimidated, did not even participate in the elections,” Postanjian claimed. “Because for them it was clear that if a mayoral candidate and a proxy can be subjected to violence, then how can it be an election?”

Postanjian, who ran for mayor in the May 14 ballot, personally went to one of HHK campaign offices located in HHK candidate, incumbent mayor Taron Markarian’s home district of Avan on the day of the voting to expose what she claimed was a vote buying scheme. Along with her daughter, Lilit Drampian, who also acted as her proxy she was forced out of the HHK premises by police officers called in by ruling party activists.

In a statement released shortly after the incident Postanjian, then a member of the National Assembly, claimed violence was used against her and her daughter, who suffered a concussion. She also deplored the lack of response from appropriate law-enforcement bodies to the incident. The Special Investigative Service of Armenia later launched two probes in connection with the incident.

Representatives of the HHK deny using any vote buying or pressuring voters in any elections, insisting that the votes garnered by the party show that it remains the most popular political force in Armenia.

Postanjian-Led Party Challenges Yerevan Election Results

The Yerkir Tsirani party led by opposition parliamentarian Zaruhi Postanjian has asked the Central Election Commission (CEC) to annul the results of the Sunday municipal elections in Yerevan, claiming large-scale fraud and violations, including vote buying, by the ruling party.

Yerkir Tsirani, which was founded only weeks before the elections, managed to poll nearly 8 percent of the vote, entitling it to forming a minority five-member faction in the 65-seat Council of Elders of the Armenian capital.

Another opposition force – the Yelk alliance – gained 21 percent of the vote in the elections won by the ruling Republican Party of Armenia and its incumbent mayor Taron Markarian by a landslide (over 71 percent).

In its application to the CEC, Yerkir Tsirani claimed large-scale fraud implemented by the HHK with the assistance of police officers that included vote buying, guidance of voters, as well as violence against Postanjian and her proxy.

Postanjian, who ran for mayor in the elections, personally went to one of HHK campaign offices located in Markarian’s home district of Avan on the day of the voting to expose what she claimed was a vote buying scheme. Along with her daughter, Lilit Drampian, who also acted as her proxy she was forced out of the HHK premises by police officers called in by ruling party activists.

In a statement released on Monday Postanjian claimed violence was used against her and her daughter, who suffered a concussion. She also deplored the lack of response from appropriate law-enforcement bodies to the incident.

Listing these and other violations observed during the elections, the opposition party also alleged that election-related documents kept at the safes at electoral precincts had been tampered with in favor of the HHK.

“We demand that, based on Article 142 of the Electoral Code, the results of the elections be annulled, as the above-mentioned violations have had an impact on the outcome of the elections and cannot be redressed,” the opposition party said.

The concerns stated by Yerkir Tsirani, Yelk and some other Armenian political and civic groups were echoed on Monday by local observers, who spoke about a wide range of violations, including pressure on voters, use of administrative resource, open ballot, guidance of voters, the presence of ‘fake’ observers acting as ruling party proxies at polling stations, obstructions to the work of observers and even violence and threats against them, during a press conference in Yerevan.

HHK representatives have brushed aside the accusations, insisting that “the few violations” registered during the elections could not have any significant impact on the outcome of the vote that otherwise represented “a serious step forward” in comparison with the previous municipal polls.

CEC Chairman Tigran Mukuchian also suggested that separate incidents and violations reported during the vote could not overshadow the electoral process as a whole and that the process took place in accordance with the requirements of the Electoral Code.

Armenian Ruling Party Again Accused Of Vote Buying

With two days to go before municipal elections in Yerevan, the opposition Yelk alliance demanded on Friday that the ruling Republican Party (HHK) and its top candidate, incumbent Mayor Taron Markarian, be disqualified from the race because of what it called vote buying.

The demand was lodged with the Central Election Commission (CEC) the day after a correspondent for “Haykakan Zhamanak,” a newspaper close to Yelk’s mayoral candidate Nikol Pashinian, claimed to have witnessed distribution of vote bribes at an HHK campaign office in the city’s Malatia-Sebastia district.

The journalist, Anna Zakharian, said she saw local voters emerging from the office with 20,000-dram ($41) notes as well as ballots marked for the HHK and Markarian in their hands. She said she entered the office and started filming it with her mobile phone before being confronted by HHK activists working there. Zakharian claimed that they wrested the phone.

“Haykakan Zhamanak” released afterwards a short video which it said they tried unsuccessfully to delete. It shows people approaching a man sitting at a table and calling out their names inside the overcrowded office.

Pashinian and other Yelk leaders rushed to the scene later on Thursday, demanding that the Armenian police search the HHK office and stop the alleged vote buying. They complained afterwards that police officers alerted by them sealed but did not enter the premises.

The HHK’s campaign headquarters issued a statement, meanwhile, denying the Yelk allegations as “utter disinformation.”

Armenia - Yerevan Mayor Taron Markarian speaks at an election campaign rally in Erebuni district, 21Apr2017.

Yelk appealed to the CEC the following morning, demanding that the commission seek a court ruling that would disqualify the HHK and Markarian. In a separate petition, it also demanded that the commission ask the police to deploy officers at the HHK’s campaign offices across the city.

One of the opposition bloc’s representatives, Artak Zeynalian, said the Malatia-Sebastia incident is indicative of the HHK’s systematic recourse to vote buying both in the mayoral race and recent parliamentary elections.

The CEC was due to meet and consider the demands later in the day.

The CEC chairman, Tigran Mukuchian, declined to confirm or deny the alleged vote buying when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) on Friday. He said the incident is being investigated by law-enforcement authorities. The latter issued no statements to that effect as of late afternoon.

Mukuchian also denied that HHK campaigners in Malatia-Sebastia obtained valid ballots before the mayoral polls in violation of Armenian law. He claimed that they only used ballot samples as “propaganda material.”

Meanwhile, Yelk claimed to have uncovered evidence of vote buying at an HHK office in another Yerevan district, Arabkir. In a live Facebook broadcast, Pashinian demonstrated what he called HHK documents detailing distribution of vote bribes to local residents. He urged supporters to join a Yelk demonstration which was due to be staged in the area later in the day.

The HHK, which is headed by President Serzh Sarkisian, was already accused of buying votes during the April 2 parliamentary elections. Opposition groups say that the illegal practice was instrumental in the ruling party’s landslide election victory.

In an April 3 report, European observers cited “credible information about vote-buying, and pressure on civil servants and employees of private companies.”

A spokesman for the HHK subsequently admitted that vote bribes were handed out by some candidates. But he insisted that they did not have a “substantial impact” on the election outcome.

RFE/RL Reporter Assaulted During Yerevan Vote

A correspondent for RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) covering Sunday’s municipal elections in Yerevan was assaulted by government loyalists after witnessing distribution of cash to voters outside a campaign office of the ruling Republican Party (HHK).

The journalist, Sisak Gabrielian, saw a group of other citizens receiving money from another person shortly after they came out of the office located in the city’s central Kentron district.

“Did you vote for Taron?” one man asked them, referring to Yerevan’s incumbent Mayor Taron Markarian, who is affiliated with the HHK. “Yes, we did,” replied one of the citizens.

Gabrielian then went into the office and tried to interview HHK activists working there. Clearly taken aback, they immediately moved hid their papers lying on an office desk. One of them claimed that they are sharing pastry recipes with local residents.

Moments later, some of the young men started verbally abusing and jostling Gabrielian, who was thus forced to stop filming them with his mobile phone. One of them hit the journalist with his hat.

Gabrielian then heard threats from another man, who presented himself as an HHK-affiliated member of Yerevan’s outgoing municipal council. The man apologized to the RFE/RL correspondent shortly afterwards.

The HHK leadership and law-enforcement authorities did not immediately comment on the incident.

Gabrielian was already assaulted while witnessing a similar distribution of cash to voters in another HHK campaign office in Yerevan during the April 2 parliamentary elections. One man was subsequently charged with obstructing “legitimate professional activities of a journalist.” Law-enforcement authorities backed, however, HHK claims that that the ruling party was paying its local activists’ “wages,” rather than buying votes.

Armenian opposition and civic groups maintain that the party headed by President Serzh Sarkisian heavily relied on vote buying to win the April 2 ballot. European monitors similarly cited “credible information about vote buying.”

An HHK spokesman admitted on April 5 that vote bribes were handed out by some candidates. But he insisted that they did not have a “substantial impact” on the election results.

Opposition Leader Forced Out Of Ruling Party Office

Armenia - Police forcibly remove Zaruhi Postanjian, an opposition mayoral candidate, from a campaign office of the ruling Republican Party in Yerevan, 14May2017.

Կիսվել

Կարդալ մեկնաբանությունները

Police in Yerevan on Sunday forcibly removed Zaruhi Postanjian, an opposition mayoral candidate, from a campaign office of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) which she accused of bribing voters.

Postanjian, who was accompanied by her teenage daughter, entered the office located in the city’s northern Avan district during voting in municipal elections. She tried to get hold of what she described as lists of local resident who were paid by the HHK to vote for Yerevan’s incumbent Mayor Taron Markarian.

HHK activists working there rejected the demands during an ensuing altercation. They and Postanjian accused each other of violent conduct when they continued to bitterly argue in front of journalists.

“Nobody has the right to enter our office without permission,” shouted a middle-aged man managing the office.

The head of the HHK chapter in Avan, who also arrived at the scene, likewise argued that under Armenian law citizens not affiliated with a particular party are not free to enter its premises. He denied buying votes, while admitting that HHK offices in the district keep “lists of our voters.”

“Evidence of election fraud is kept in those drawers,” Postanjian told policer officers called up by the HHK activists. She demanded that they confiscate and examine the documents in her presence.

A police colonel said he will do that after all unauthorized persons leave the office. A furious Postanjian refused to leave it before being dragged away by other officers. They seemed intent on detaining her but changed their mind at the last minute.

Postanjian’s daughter, Lilit Drampian, was apparently driven away from the scene. The police insisted afterwards that she was not detained, however. Drampian suffered a concussion and was taken to a hospital, according to her mother.

Armenia -- Opposition mayoral candidate Zaruhi Postanjian gives a press conference in Yerevan, 14May2017

Postanjian, who is one of the two opposition candidates running for the post of Yerevan mayor, defended her actions and condemned the police at a news conference held later in the day. She argued that vote buying is illegal in Armenia.

In a written statement, the Armenian police said the use of force was justified because Postanjian defied the law-enforcement officers’ orders. The statement also said that she broke into the HHK office and tried to search it in breach of Armenia’s laws.

Still, a separate statement by the Office of the Prosecutor-General said that the police will investigate Postanjian’s allegations. It also said that it will assign another law-enforcement body, the Special Investigative Service, to deal with the Avan incident.

Tigran Mukuchian, the pro-government chairman of Armenia’s Central Election Commission (CEC), denounced Postanjian’s actions. “It is unacceptable when someone enters a campaign office and tries to paralyze its work,” he told reporters.

Postanjian’s Yerkir Tsirani party and the Yelk alliance, the other opposition contender in Yerevan’s mayoral race, have repeatedly accused the CEC of turning a blind eye to systematic vote buying by the HHK. Yelk went as far as to demand on Friday that President Serzh Sarkisian’s party be disqualified from the race. The CEC rejected the demand.

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