By Vahan Ishkhanyan,
ArmeniaNow reporter

Eight political parties, eight newspapers and 21 human rights activists and
intellectuals have released a statement calling for the release of former
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Alexander Arzumanyan. Arzumanyan has been
kept in the Kentron prison (of the National Security Service) since May 7.

He has been held on charges of money laundering, however his supporters say the
charges are politically motivated and the arrest was because of Arzumanyan’s
public support of oppositional ideologies.

Last week an appeals court upheld a lower court decision to hold Arzumanyan for
two months. The statement by the rights activists and others is in response to
the Court of Appeal decision.

Arzumanyan’s lawyers are now preparing documents to appeal to the European Court
of Human Rights.

Arzumanyan is the first citizen charged with money laundering in Armenia, since
a law specific to the crime was introduced in the Criminal Code of Armenia in
2003. National Security Service officers found $55,000 in Arzumanyan’s apartment
during a raid on his home. (See: Oppositionist Organizer Arrested)

The NSS says Arzumanyan conspired with Russian-Armenian millionaire Levon Markos
to launder money through Armenia that Markos had obtained by allegedly illegal
means.

Sashik Aghazaryan, a citizen of Krasnogorsk, Russia used media to address the
NSS stating that the money that was sent to Arzumanyan was honestly earned by
him, and demanded Arzumanyan’s release , and full compensation of the sum
confiscated from the apartment.

However, the amount of the sum Arzumanyan is alleged in laundering remains
unknown. Arzumanyan refuses to give testimony: “We state that we do not give
testimony. Let them clarify if the money Arzumanyan received was gained by
criminal ways,” Arzumanyan’s lawyer Hovik Arsenyan says: “if the money is legal,
then one can send and receive even millions.”

Last week human rights and public activists held a discussion in the ‘168 Zham’
newspaper office in support of Arzumanyan.

“This case does not have any persepctives for court proceedings,” lawyer Vahe
Grigoryan says. “Justice simply becomes a tool of solving political problems.”

Grigoryan speculated that the NSS (formerly the KGB) is returning to practices
it carried out in soviet times, adding that portraits of soviet revolutionary
and party leader and one-time Minister of Interior Felix Dzerzhinski adorn NSS
office walls, symbolizing an atmosphere of oppression that Grigoryan says is
encouraged by NSS. “Dzerzhinksi would never let Alik Arzumanyan free,” the
lawyer says.

Karapet Rubinyan, former Vice Speaker of the National Assembly says today there
are thousands of people who receive money from abroad, and can, therefore, be
charged by the article in the Criminal Code for money laundering. The provision,
he says, becomes a new type of weapon of subjection and settling of political
accounts.

Arzumanyan founded an organization called Civil Disobedience Movement last
autumn and organized a number of anti-governmental rallies.

The statement claims Alexander Arzumanyan was arrested for his political
activities and is a political prisoner. His supporters have created a website
(http://arzumanyan.atwebpages.com) on Arzumanyan’s behalf.