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Former Prosecutor calls for election results to be reconsidered

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  • Former Prosecutor calls for election results to be reconsidered

    Aravot, Armenia
    Feb. 23, 2008


    FORMER ARMENIAN PROSECUTOR CALLS FOR ELECTION RESULTS TO BE
    RECONSIDERED



    Armenia's former deputy prosecutor-general, Gagik Jangiryan, who was
    dismissed after he announced his supportfor former president Levon
    Ter-Petrosyan, has called for the reconsideration of the results of
    the 19 Februarypresidential elections. Speaking at the opposition
    rally in Yerevan on 22 February, he said that it is impossible togain
    the people's vote of confidence through ballot stuffing. He also said
    that the Armenian military will notraise their hand against the own
    people. Ter-Petrosyan's supporters are protesting against the results
    of thepresidential election, according to which Ter-Petrosyan gained
    about 21 per cent of votes and Prime Minister SerzhSargsyan about
    51.7 per cent. The following is an excerpt from Gayane Sahakyan's
    report from Armenian newspaperAravot on 23 February headlined "I am
    already a former prosecutor":

    Yesterday the already former deputy prosecutor-general of the
    Republic of Armenia, Gagik Jangiryan, speaking for the second time on
    Freedom Square after his dismissal, announced that if he participated
    in rallies by [president-elect and Prime Minister] Serzh Sargsyan and
    misused his position for the sake of this, he would not be dismissed,
    but would get apromotion. "However, everything is okay, I will
    overcome this sorrow in a few days," Jangiryan added.
    SamvelHovhannisyan, the investigator of the 27 October case [the 1999
    attack on the Armenian parliament] also followed theexample of his
    former boss [Jangiryan].

    [Passage omitted: description of the rally]

    Jangiryan said at the rally: "I am still a prosecutor and I do not
    call on you for violence, but I am saying -do not retreat before any
    force. There is no general or serviceman in our country who will be
    able to raise their handagainst the Armenian people". He urged people
    to call Levon Ter-Petrosyan not the first president of the republic,
    but its third president.

    Jangiryan also touched upon the 27 October case. "I would not be
    honest with myself, if I did not discuss the 27October case with you.
    I definitely join the political assessments made by Levon
    Ter-Petrosyan - the criminal casesseparated from the 27 October case
    were hushed up with blatant violations of the Criminal Procedure
    Code, and theinvestigation into this separated part was prohibited."

    At the moment when Jangiryan announced his support for Ter-Petrosyan
    and danced with the first president and rallyparticipants on the
    square, the Prosecutor-General's Office of the Republic of Armenia
    reported that theprosecutor-general had asked Armenian President
    Robert Kocharyan to dismiss Jangiryan from his office and from
    theprosecutor's office, as the law bans prosecutors from engaging in
    politics.

    The leader of the Heritage Party, Raffi Hovhannisyan, also attended
    the rally yesterday. Addressing Prime MinisterSerzh Sargsyan, he
    called on him to apologize to the people and to join the movement for
    reconsidering the electionresults: "Is it possible to gain the
    people's vote of confidence through ballot stuffing and violence? Is
    it avictory he deserves?"

    The deputy chairman of the Yerkrapah Union of Volunteers, Miasnik
    Malkhasyan, announced that all Yerkrapah membersand suicide attackers
    [as written], volunteer fighters and volunteer veterans have joined
    Ter-Petrosyan's movement under one single banner.

    [Passage omitted: Malkhasyan comments on the pro-government
    orientation of the presidential candidate, ArtashesGeghamyan, the
    leader of the National Unity Party; speeches by other participants in
    the rally - Nikol Pashinyan,editor-in-chief of the opposition daily
    Haykakan Zhamanak; Grigor Harutyunyan, the secretary of the People's
    Party of Armenia; and the leader of the Armenian Marxist Party of
    Armenia, David Hakobyan]
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