As it was expected an Armenian court yesterday rejected opposition leader, editor-in-chief of Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper Nikol Pashinyan’s lawsuit against a controversial extension of his imprisonment by prison authorities. The latter was complaining against a decision of the warden of "Nubarashen" Penitentiary Tigran Navasardyan to prolong Pashinyan’s prison term by another four months. Pashinyan was sentenced early this year to seven years in prison for his role in the 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan, a punishment both he and the Armenian opposition consider politically motivated. A general amnesty initiated by the government last year means that he will have to serve only half of that sentence. By applying the amnesty adopted by the RA National Assembly on June 19, 2009, Tigran Navasardyan had set Pashinyan’s imprisonment for 3 years, 10 months and 29 days. Pashinyan argues that that Navasardyan should have divided the 7-year period envisaged in the verdict into 3 years and 6 months. Nikol Pashinyan was sentenced to 7 years in prison in the wake of post-election clashes on March 1, 2008. Nikol Pashinyan yesterday announced that with the extension of his prison term the authorities want to keep him away from the election campaign. The statement of Pashinyan specifically says, “During the past days we have witnessed the joint operation of the criminal and the gangster state. What did they expect me to do – not to write articles and not have a flag above my head? Now they have taken me to the solitary, where they are forbidding me to have a pen and paper. Neither am I allowed to have any other item. Thus, having realized that they cannot reach or have big success with the criminals the gangster state has decided to use the “law.” I would like to promulgate the following. I was taken to the solitary because the ministry of justice was telling unbelievable lies about my activity here. I officially state that the viewpoints of the head of the penitentiary addressed to me are total lies at least by 70%. The statement as though I refused to enter the residential area of the penitentiary is not close to reality. I was forbidden to enter this zone because of my safety matters. Moreover, on November 16 I have written a petition to the head of the penitentiary to allow me to go back to the residential area. So the latter has decided to punish me in order to justify his decision. The decision of sending me to the cell is just mind-blowing and the reason of the lockdown was to make me silent. After March 1 of 2008 this is the only period when I don’t have an opportunity to write articles. Even if Serzh Sargsyan resigns I won’t be informed about that. I think the ministry of justice needs this time to easily circulate lies about me. So whenever you confront any information circulated by the ministry you should consider very carefully I have stated and will state that for the sake of peaceful and free Armenia I will fight forever regardless of the fact whether I am in jail, solitary or anywhere else. So let Serzhik know that these methods won’t defeat me. I will fight till the end and will forge with my own hands the collapse of Serzhik’s administration.”
