REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA

Head of State Robert Kocharian

Head of government Serge Sarkisian (replaced Andranik Markarian 4 April 2007)

Death penalty abolitionist for all crimes

Population 3 million

Life expectancy 71.7 years

Under-5 mortality (m/f) 36/31 per 1,000

Adult literacy 99.4 per cent

Freedoms of assembly and expression were restricted. One person died in custody
in disputed circumstances. Physical assaults on Jehovah’s Witnesses were
reportedly not investigated. The authorities failed to introduce a genuinely
civilian alternative to military service and conscientious objectors continued
to be imprisoned.

Freedom of expression threatened

There were widespread and credible reports of restrictions on the right to
freedom of assembly. Opposition parties reported abuses of administrative
bureaucracy during the May parliamentary election campaign to obstruct legal
demonstrations. In May and October police used force to disperse peaceful
demonstrations by opposition parties.

• In June Gagik Shamshian, a freelance journalist with two opposition newspapers, received a suspended sentence of two and a half years for fraud, reduced on appeal to one year. He was charged after he reported being attacked by people linked to the mayor of Nubarashen suburb, Yerevan, in July 2006. Proceedings against his alleged attackers were closed in February.
• In October, newspaper editors Nikol Pashinian and Shogher Matevosian were
  arrested after participating in a march in central Yerevan with supporters of
  the former President Levon Ter-Petrosian, a vocal critic of the government.
• On 13 December there was an explosion at the offices of the opposition newspaper
  Chorrord Ishkhanutyun (Fourth Power). Also in December, the Gyumri-based
  television channel Gala TV faced harassment from the authorities following its
  broadcasting of Levon Ter-Petrosian’s campaigning activities, allegedly in spite
  of official warnings not to do so.

Death in custody

• In May Levon Gulyan, a Yerevan restaurant owner, died in custody at the Ministry
  of Internal Affairs, after two days of questioning as a possible witness to a
  fatal shooting outside his restaurant. The authorities claimed he died as a
  result of falling from a window while attempting either escape or suicide. Levon
  Gulyan’s relatives rejected these explanations.Following his initial detention
  Levon Gulyan was permitted to return home briefly, during which time relatives
  alleged they had seen bruises on his body. The official forensic examination
  carried out by the Prosecutor’s Office supported the Ministry’s claims.
  Autopsies carried out by international experts were inconclusive.

Impunity

Representatives of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Yerevan reported that physical
assaults against their members were not adequately investigated by police.

• In February Jehovah’s Witnesses Ruben Khachaturian and Narine Gevorkian were
  allegedly beaten and threatened by neighbours in the Shengavit suburb of
  Yerevan. They said that the police failed to initiate a prompt investigation.

Prisoners of conscience

The Armenian authorities failed to introduce a civilian alternative to
compulsory military service, an obligation undertaken on joining the Council of
Europe.

Imprisonment of conscientious objectors, all Jehovah’s Witnesses, continued. In
September there were reportedly 82 Jehovah’s Witnesses in detention, a record
number. Numbers of conscientious objectors imprisoned increased due to
successful prosecution appeals for maximum sentences and greater reluctance to
grant parole.

Jehovah’s Witnesses reported further problems on release due to the authorities’
refusal to grant them certification of fulfilment of service, without which
important documents such as passports and internal residence permits were harder
to obtain.

Amnesty International visit/report

Amnesty International representatives visited Armenia in March.