VZCZCXRO4050
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHNP RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHYE #0974/01 3371526
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 021526Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY YEREVAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8369
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORPORATION WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 000974 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM KJUS AM
SUBJECT: COURTS RELEASE SOME DETAINEES, BUT RULE AGAINST 
OPPOSITION BUSINESSMAN 
 
YEREVAN 00000974  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1. (SBU) In the second half of November, several 
Armenian courts issued rulings on cases involving 
high-profile opposition supporters of ex-President 
Levon Ter-Petrossian (LTP).  Two of these cases 
resulted in the release of opposition supporters. 
In one of these, Armenia's Cassation Court vacated 
the two-year prison sentence of an LTP regional 
election campaign coordinator.  Separately, a lower 
trial court temporarily released Armenia's former 
Deputy Prosecutor-General on humanitarian 
grounds so that he could attend his mother's 
funeral.  Also on November 28, the Cassation Court 
overturned a July 1 ruling against a restaurant 
employee of an opposition oligarch, sending the 
case back to a lower court for re-examination. 
At the same time, however, an administrative court 
refused to give partial relief to Armenia's largest 
mineral water bottling company, owned by the same 
opposition oligarch, thereby upholding the USD 13.8 
million fine that Armenia's State Taxation Service 
imposed on it in October.  END SUMMARY. 
 
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RELEASE OF OPPOSITIONISTS 
------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) On November 28, Armenia's Court of 
Cassation ordered the conditional release of Husik 
Baghdasarian from further serving out his two-year 
prison sentence.  Baghdasarian was LTP's campaign 
coordinator in the Ararat region, and was arrested 
February 26 when he was charged with the illegal 
acquisition, possession, and sale of weapons, 
ammunition and explosives.  He was eventually 
convicted March 31 for the illegal possession of 
sixteen bullets, and sentenced to three years in 
prison.  On May 21, an appeals court commuted his 
sentence to two years.  While the Cassation Court's 
November 28 ruling vacated his prison sentence, it 
did not revoke the March 31 guilty verdict that the 
appeals court later upheld.  After his release, 
Baghdasarian called the decisions of all three 
courts "illegal" and "brazenly false," and pledged 
to seek an acquittal at the European Court of Human 
Rights. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Also on November 28, the Court of 
Cassation overturned a July 1 Criminal Review Court 
ruling that upheld a lower court's ruling to 
prolong the detention of Anoush Ghavalian, a 
waitress at the Pizza di Roma restaurant chain 
owned by the fugitive pro-opposition oligarch MP 
Khachatur Sukiasian.  The July 1 ruling was in 
response to Ghavalian's lawyer's appeal that she be 
released from detention.  Later, on November 7, 
Yerevan's Criminal Court eventually released her on 
bail.  The new ruling therefore appears to call 
into question the basis for Ghavalian's detention 
by the authorities as far back as early July. 
Until her release, Ghavalian had been held in pre- 
trial detention since March 21 -- approximately 
seven and a half months -- pending an investigation 
into her alleged tax evasion and failure to report 
income.  It is widely believed that Ghavalian was 
detained in order to obtain false testimony from 
her against Sukiasian, who went into hiding after 
he and three other MPs had their parliamentary 
immunity stripped on March 4.  Ghavalian's case had 
drawn increasing attention for humanitarian 
reasons, particularly given her status as a jailed 
single mother and head of household with two small 
children and an ailing mother. 
 
¶4. (SBU) From November 22-27, Armenia's former 
Deputy Prosecutor-General Gagik Jhangirian, was 
temporarily released on humanitarian grounds so 
that he could attend the funeral of his mother. 
His trial resumed on December 2.  Jhangirian had 
originally been charged with attempts to usurp 
power and illegal possession of weapons, but later 
saw the charges reduced to resisting arrest. 
Jhangirian was detained while driving in his 
car during a midnight stakeout by a special SWAT- 
style unit of organized crime police on February 
23, just hours after he had given a fiery pro-LTP 
speech at Freedom Square.  His February 22 speech 
 
YEREVAN 00000974  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
resulted in his immediate termination by then- 
President Robert Kocharian.  Jhangirian and his 
proxies have alleged that the police commando unit 
that arrested him bore no identifiable police 
badges or identifying marks, and his first 
impression was that it was an assassination or 
kidnapping attempt, as opposed to a police 
apprehension. 
 
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RULING AGAINST OPPOSITIONIST BUSINESSMAN 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) On November 11, one of Armenia's 
administrative courts refused the request of 
Armenia's largest mineral water bottling company 
(BJNI) for partial relief from a USD 13.8 fine 
imposed on it by Armenia's State Taxation Service 
and upheld by a court ruling on October 10. 
Partial relief would have suspended the ongoing 
confiscation of BJNI's revenues, thereby allowing 
it to resume operations which have been idling 
since mid-October, and put some of its 400 
workers back to work.  Armenia's tax authorities 
allege that BJNI evaded taxes by improperly 
metering its water consumption.  BJNI's lawyers 
have countered that the water meter was installed 
and repeatedly checked by state agencies 
responsible for monitoring its water usage.  The 
administrative court's decision has been viewed as 
the latest salvo in the authorities' broader 
crackdown on businesses from the SIL Group 
conglomerate, controlled by Khachatur Sukiasian. 
(NOTE: BJNI, like Pizza di Roma above, is part of 
the SIL Group.  END NOTE).  In addition to the 
partial relief request, BJNI has also appealed the 
October 10 ruling, which has yet to be heard. 
BJNI's lawyer had argued that the sanctions on 
BJNI, in the form of confiscation of revenues, 
should have been postponed until the appeal court's 
ruling.  He warned, however, that "now the company 
is heading for ruin." 
 
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COMMENT 
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¶6. (SBU) The series of more liberal rulings from 
the Court of Cassation probably reflects the 
influence of Arman Mkrtumain, who was appointed 
head of the Court by the President on September 17 
after his predecessor was abruptly sacked, 
reportedly for corruption.  The Human Rights 
Defender (Ombudsman) recently described Mkrtumian 
to DCM as a strong reformer who is among a small 
group pressing within the Government for greater 
independence of the judiciary.  These modest steps 
in the right direction lend support to the 
Ombudsman,s claim, and we should welcome them.  The 
fact stands, however, that nearly seventy 
opposition supporters remain either in jail 
serving time, in detention pending the conclusion 
of their court cases, or in pre-trial detention 
nine months after the March 1-2 events.  And almost 
all of those who have been conditionally released 
to date, such as Husik Baghdasarian, have seen 
their convictions upheld, or had various preventive 
measures placed on them while their cases -- and 
their fates -- remain in legal limbo. 
 
¶7. (SBU) While the recent decisions are on balance 
good news, there is nothing to suggest that the 
authorities are wavering in their apparent 
determination to keep the vast majority of 
detainees in jail at least until all of their cases 
have moved through the court system.  In our 
ongoing government contacts, we will recognize the 
modest positive steps of releasing these detainees, 
while pressing for more sweeping action to correct 
the bigger unresolved problem of politically- 
motivated detentions. 
YOVANOVITCH