Armenia’s Court of Appeals on Thursday refused to release former Foreign Minister Aleksander Arzumanyan from jail pending investigation into the allegedly illegal financing of his anti-government political activities. Yesterday at the Pressing Club a number of NGO representatives summoned a roundtable to discuss what methods should be applied to release an innocent person blamed of “money laundering”. “The arrest of Alexander Arzumanyan, the former Foreign Minister of Armenia, on alleged charges of money laundering is unprecedented because no other citizen of Armenia has ever been accused of getting a transfer,” says Vardan Harutyunyan, a human rights activist. “Alexander Arzumanyan’s arrest is groundless, and there is no evidence,” said Vahe Grigoryan, Arzumanyan’s attorney. Davit Shahnazaryan shares his opinion, and endorses Arzumanyan’s refusal to be interrogated. The participants of the debate agree it is clear persecution, connected with the Civil Disobedience Movement initiated by Arzumanyan. Larissa Alaverdyan, the former defender of human rights, stated that Arzumanyan was arrested in an effort to threaten the society, that it was a challenge to society. The participants of the discussion agreed to this and they therefore underlined the importance of the consolidation of civil society to stop the government and put an end to arbitrariness. Shahnazaryan suggested coordinating the public, political and civil support for Arzumanyan. The participants of the discussion decided to adopt a statement addressing the relevant government agencies, including RA President Robert Kocharyan, Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan and the National Security Service, urging to set Arzumanyan free. All NGOs are welcome to sign the statement. According to the participant of the discussion, the accusation of money laundering is preposterous because it was money transferred from a definite person, like other transfers hundreds of thousands of citizens of Armenia get every day. Arzumanyan’s attorney, Vahe Grigoryan, said Arzumanyan’s arrest is groundless, and there is no evidence. Attorney Vahe Grigoryan thinks that country develops in a way by which it will still go to totalitarianism regardless of the will of Kocharyan and Sargsyan. “Even if Kocharyan or Sargsyan don’t give such an order, the structure would still develop in the same way. How can there be a picture of Dzerzhinski in the NSS agent’s office after independence? It really is a psychological state. Dzerzhinski will never live with the freedom of Arzumanyan or Sefilyan. Those two things are contradictory. I don’t mean that it’s bad to support Dzerzhinski. The reason I’m saying this is that I surely know that there was some time when those pictures were not in the NSS. I wonder why they appeared again,” Grigoryan said, and added that it’s possible to see those pictures in all the offices of the NSS building. “We are swiftly moving to Stalinism and this process must be urgently stopped. If it continues, there will be a time when Kocharyan will not be able to prevent this process even if he really wants to.”
P.S. Today the participants of the discussion will issue a statement to all the NGOs to join the statement. The statement will be titled, “Release Alexander Arzumanyan immediately and stop legal procedures.”