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  • Framed?: Political leader's arrest on drug charges have questionable

    Framed?: Political leader's arrest on drug charges have questionable foundation
    By Vahan Ishkhanyan, ArmeniaNow reporter

    ArmeniaNow.com
    June 11, 2004

    Human rights activists, an attorney, neighbors and relatives of a
    Baghramyan political party head are charging that police in their
    region "planted" illegal drugs in the leader's home, in order to
    justify his imprisonment.

    Lavrenti Kirakosyan, 44, has been in jail since April 10, since first
    being arrested during a political demonstration at Yerevan's Opera
    House. He was arrested for failing to obey a police order, however
    court records do not say what that police order was.

    Armenian police are often accused of planting evidence, and a retired
    officer told ArmeniaNow that the practice is not unusual. In the case
    of Kirakosyan, however, the allegedly false charges are believed to
    be an attempt to discredit him for political reasons.

    Kirakosyan's wife, Laura, is among those who believe he is being
    framed. Kirakosyan is head of the National Democratic Union of
    Baghramyan, one of several political parties that, over the past three
    months, have staged demonstrations against the current government
    administration and have called for the resignation of President
    Robert Kocharyan.

    The party head was sentenced to 10 days of administrative detention. He
    did not have a lawyer. Two hours before he was to be released, the
    court ruled to allow a search of Kirakosyan's premises, on allegations
    that he was keeping weapons in his home that belonged to two Yezidies
    who are accused of violence against the head of a village.

    Kirakosyan testified that he did not know the men in question.

    Police searched Kirakosyan's home. No weapons were found, but they
    did turn up 59 grams of marijuana. A case has been initiated against
    Kirakosyan for possession of illegal drugs, for which the sentence
    on a guilty verdict could be up to three years.

    Kirakosyan has retained an attorney, who says his client is being
    framed.

    Two residents of Kirakosyan's neighborhood who were brought along
    on the first search as witnesses, say police coerced them to sign
    a document verifying that the marijuana had been found in a water
    heater on Kirakosyan' s premises.

    "When they first entered the house they searched the water heater but
    there was nothing there," Misha Shmavonyan, a neighbor who police
    asked to witness the initial search, told ArmeniaNow. "Then they
    searched different rooms and cowsheds. One policeman together with
    Gevorg (another search witness) climbed onto the roof and searched
    there. They found nothing. They returned to search this place (the
    water heater) again.

    "Gevorg said, 'Mr. Lazarian (deputy police chief), you have already
    searched here,' but policeman said they would search it again."

    On a second search, a white package was found. Inside the package
    was 59 grams of marijuana.


    Kirakosyan's brother-in-law shows were drugs were found. Shmavonyan
    says that, although a plastic vase found in the same place was covered
    with dust, the package containing the marijuana was not dirty - proof,
    he believes, that it was put there just moments before police claim
    they found it.

    Police produced a protocol of the search, and demanded that the men
    to sign it.

    "Gevorg and I said 'Why should we sign? The first time you searched
    there was nothing there.' But they told us two or three times to
    sign. Then Gevorg signed and I signed."

    Kirakosyan's sister, Gayane, says she saw police plant the package.

    "They didn't let me enter the room. I was secretly watching through
    the crack in the door," the sister says. "I saw a policeman going
    upstairs, then he threw something. I said what did he throw? But I
    didn't notice how he took it out."

    Investigator Seyran Martirosyan refused to answer ArmeniaNow's
    questions about the search.

    After the search Kirakosyan was taken to Republican Narcological Center
    where his urine was tested and found to contain traces of marijuana.

    Chief of Laboratory of the Narcological Center Svetlana Minasyan,
    who detected drugs in Lavrenti's urine, says he probably used drugs
    before being arrested and that traces can last up to three weeks in
    the blood system.

    Kirakosyan's neighbors defend his innocence, saying that they've
    never even seen him smoke cigarettes.

    But the drug specialist says marijuana can be cooked and ingested in
    food or by drinking as tea, as well as smoking.

    Lawyer Vardan Zurnachyan says the day before taking a urine sample,
    Kriakosyan was served cutlet and bread in the police department and
    after eating he felt bad, threw up and felt dizzy. A doctor from
    Baghramyan polyclinic came and gave him an injection.

    Kirakosyan's relatives believe his illness was a reaction to marijuana
    suffused into his food by police. They say either police put the drug
    in his food, or else the test was faked.

    "Drug addicts will never feel bad after using marijuana as they are
    used to drugs," Minasyan says. "And if someone, who never used drugs,
    eats them then I cannot say what can happen."

    There is no answer to investigators' question whether Kirakosyan has
    ever used drugs.

    His sister says she watched through the door while police planted
    evidence. His legal past, however, is not as clean as neighbors might
    suggest are his living habits.

    In 1996 Kirakosyan was accused of keeping a bomb in his apartment
    and was sentenced to six months of imprisonment.

    In 1998 he was once again convicted for inflicting bodily injuries
    to his nephew (sister's son) with scissors, however, he was not
    imprisoned. (His sister says he was set up by police on those charges,
    too.)

    Deputy Head of Baghramyan Police Department Perch Khachatryan refused
    to comment on Kirakosyan's case. He would only say that Kirakosyan
    had a previous conviction and that a policeman could not practically
    hide 59 grams of marijuana on his person, as the package would be
    too noticeable.

    Lavrenti Kirakosyan graduated from the Yerevan Polytechnic
    Institute. He has three children, including a son in the army. For
    a living, he breeds cattle.

    Residents in his home of Karakert praise him as a community
    leader. Some 1,500 have signed a petition calling for his release.

    Kirakosyan was also arrested for 10 days during last year's
    demonstrations against the presidential elections.

    With the help of the head of the International Union of Armenian
    Lawyers Tigran Ter-Yesayan, Kirakosyan sent an appeal to the European
    Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg , France appealing an Armenian
    court's decision on administrative imprisonment over last year's
    arrests.

    In the testimonies concerning the latest case Kirakosyan says:

    "The head of Baghramyan police department told me, 'you didn't learn
    how to behave and again went to a demonstration. That's why I put you
    in prison for ten days.' After that they took me to Armavir court,
    where the judge didn't listen to me and didn't talk to me. I was
    ordered to leave the courtroom. Then I was invited again and told
    they had sentenced me to 10 days of imprisonment."

    It is mentioned in the testimony that after the search, the deputy
    head of Baghramyan police department promised Kirakosyan to set him
    free on condition that he would give up his political activities.

    Misha Shmavonyan. "(Deputy Head) Lazarian said, 'I will tell the
    head of police department that you have 100 percent promised to never
    ever participate at any mass meetings and to give up your political
    views and that you promised to inform us about everything that your
    leaders are planning and talking about in the headquarters'."

    The investigation on the drug charges has been completed and sent
    to court.

    "Consistent political persecutions are conducted against Lavrenti,"
    says his lawyer, Zurnachyan, who has taken Kirakosyan pro bono. "He
    is arrested as if he demonstrated disobedience of a policeman's demand.

    "But his house is conducted in accordance with another case and finally
    criminal charges are brought with a completely different accusation."

    Zurnachayn says the police denied his request to examine the men
    whose guns Kirakosyan was allegedly keeping.
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