ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT AGREES TO SANCTION ARREST OF FOUR PARLIAMENTARIANS
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS
March 4, 2008
Russia
Armenian Prosecutor General Agvan Ovsepian made a request while
speaking at the National Assembly on Tuesday that parliamentarians
Myasnik Malkhasian, Sasun Mikaelian, Akop Akopian, and Khachatur
Sukiasian be deprived of parliamentary immunity and arrested, and
the parliament granted his request.
Only members of the opposition faction Heritage and a number of
independent deputies voted against giving consent to their arrest.
Akopian, Malkhasian, Mikaelian, and Sukiasian are accused of organizing
unrest in Yerevan on March 1 and 2.
"Refusing to accept the results of the February 19 elections, Levon
Ter-Petrosian [an opposition presidential candidate who lost the
elections] and his supporters took large-scale measures to arouse
mistrust in the election results among the people, call them into
question, and fuel public discontent," Ovsepian said in his report.
People speaking at opposition rallies called for civil disobedience
and the disruption of the work of government institutions and private
companies, he said.
The prosecutor insisted that the crowd led by Ter-Petrosian’s
supporters armed by firearms, batons, metal bars, and Molotov cocktails
attacked policemen during public unrest on March 1 and 2.
It was reported earlier that at least one policeman was killed and
more than 100 others received injuries of varying degrees. The windows
of the city hall and the nearby buildings were broken.
Vandals burned 63 vehicles, including an ambulance. The revolt left
8 people dead and at least 165 injured, among them more than 100
policemen and military servicemen.