Three more citizens of Armenia controversially imprisoned during and after the
disputed 2003 presidential election won on Tuesday lawsuits against their
government filed to the European Court of Human Rights.

The court declared the arrests illegal and ordered the Armenian government to
pay each of the plaintiffs 4,500 euros ($5,700) in “non-pecuniary” damages. They
will also get an additional 3,000 euros worth of compensation each for legal
expenses incurred during the lengthy litigation.

Two of them, Lavrenti Kirakosian and Arman Mkhitarian, reside in Karakert, a
village in the southern Armavir region. They both participated in March 2003
rallies staged in Yerevan by Stepan Demirchian, the main opposition presidential
candidate. They were subsequently arrested and sentenced to ten days in prison
for allegedly disobeying police orders and using “foul language” against
law-enforcement officers.

The third plaintiff, Miasnik Tadevosian, is a resident of another Armavir
village, Mrgashat. A retired senior police officer, he led the regional chapter
of the opposition National Unity Party.

Tadevosian was arrested and given a ten-day sentence on the same charge after
attending similar anti-government rallies staged by Demirchian and other
opposition leaders in March-April 2004.

The three men were imprisoned under the Soviet-era Code of Administrative
Offenses. The Armenian authorities used the code for briefly jailing hundreds of
participants of unsanctioned opposition rallies. The so-called “administrative
arrests” were strongly condemned by local and international human rights
organizations. The authorities abolished the practice in 2005 under strong
pressure from the Council of Europe.

In separate rulings, the Strasbourg-based court ruled that the prison sentences
given to the three men violated several provisions of the European Convention on
Human Rights ratified by Armenia. It said none of them had a fair trial and
“adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defense.”

The opposition supporters’ defense lawyer, Tigran Ter-Yesayan, welcomed the
rulings. “The European Court simply certified that the rights of these
individuals were violated during and after the presidential elections,” he told
RFE/RL. “But whether the authorities will draw appropriate conclusions from
these verdicts and refrain from such actions in the future is an open question.”

The authorities could face similar lawsuits from more than 100 other opposition
members and supporters who were arrested in the wake of the last presidential
election held on February 19. At least 70 of them remain in jail on charges
stemming from the March 1 clashes in Yerevan. The Council of Europe and other
international bodies say at least some of these detainees were jailed for
exercising their political rights.

By Hovannes Shoghikian