From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Thu Jun 06 2002 - 09:47:04 EDT
Opposition slams authorities' handling of Armenian parliament shootings case
Text of report by Armenian news agency Arminfo
Yerevan, 5 June: The sentence imposed on the former chief of the Armenian
Interior Ministry's department on fulfilment of court decisions, Musheg
Sagatelyan, is further proof that the Armenian authorities provide
guarantees for the criminals who carried out the terrorist act in the
Armenian parliament in October 1999, a member of the political council of
the Anrapetutyun [Republic] Party, Suren Surenyants, told journalists
today.
He said that the case of the former chief of the department on fulfilment of
court decisions, Musheg Sagatelyan, was closely interconnected with the
case of the terrorist act in the Armenian parliament. By sentencing
Sagatelyan to seven years in prison, the ruling regime was trying to
provide some basis for the president's version of events, which is that
this terrorist act was carried out by just five criminals, Surenyants said.
He recalled that the Anrapetutyun Party has always believed and continues
to believe that there was a political subtext to the persecution of Musheg
Sagatelyan. "Sagatelyan's sentence has again proved that the parties and
politicians who are determined to get to the bottom of what happened with
the terrorist act in the Armenian parliament are made the targets for
persecution in Armenia," Surenyants said.
The member of the party's political council stressed that "the truth about
the crime in Armenia's parliament and the problem of Musheg Sagatelyan can
only be resolved after there is a change of power in Armenia". He said that
the efforts of Anrapetutyun and the parties with which it is allied are
directed towards achieving this goal.
Source: Arminfo, Yerevan, in Russian 0935 gmt 5 Jun 02
BBC Mon TCU 050602 aed
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