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Constitutional Court Upholds Oppositionists' Innocence

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  • Constitutional Court Upholds Oppositionists' Innocence

    CONSTITUTIONAL COURT UPHOLDS OPPOSITIONISTS' INNOCENCE
    Karine Kalantarian

    http://www.azatutyun.am/content/artic le/1998090.html
    30.03.2010

    Armenia's Constitutional Court on Tuesday effectively ordered
    law-enforcement authorities to formally declare innocent those
    opposition figures who were prosecuted for their alleged role in the
    2008 post-election unrest but then cleared of all charges for lack
    of evidence.

    Dozens of loyalists of opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian were
    charged with organizing "mass disturbances" and even plotting to
    seize power following the deadly March 2008 violence in Yerevan.

    The police and other law-enforcement bodies subsequently dropped the
    controversial criminal cases against some oppositionists for lack of
    evidence. An article of Armenia's code for procedural justice allowed
    them to stop short of stating that those men are innocent.

    Two of those oppositionists, Aram Sarkisian and Karapet Rubinian,
    asked the Constitutional Court to invalidate the clause, saying
    that it runs counter to the constitutionally guaranteed presumption
    of innocence. The court accepted the demand in a ruling announced
    on Tuesday.

    The plaintiffs' lawyers welcomed the ruling. "If there is evidence,
    then there is guilt," one of them, Artak Zeynalian, told RFE/RL's
    Armenian service. "If not, there is not guilt and the formulation that
    their involvement in a crime is not proven violates the presumption
    of innocence."

    Ara Ghazarian, the other lawyer, said the court upheld not only
    Armenia's constitution but also European conventions signed by
    Yerevan. "That means we are on the right path," he said.
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