On March 12 at press-conference in Yerevan Zaruhi Postanjian and Haik Halumian,
the attorneys of the Chief Editor of “Zhamanak-Yerevan” newspaper Arman Babajanian,
announced that the appeal they had filed on January 22 had been refused by the
RA Court of Cassation. As reported, on September 8, 2006 the court of primary
jurisdiction of Center and Nork-Marash communities of Yerevan sentenced Arman
Babajanian to 4 years’ imprisonment for document fraud to evade military service.
On January 12, 2007 the RA Court of Appeals reduced the punishment to 3.5 years
of imprisonment (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, January
12-18, 2007).
The attorneys demanded to abolish the sentence to Arman Babajanian, since the
RA Law “On Citizens Who Have Not Taken Mandatory Military Service with Procedural
Violations“ should be applied to him. According to the attorneys, in the notification
of the court of supreme jurisdiction, received on March 11, the refusal of the
appeal is justified by saying it did not conform with the requirements to cassation
appeals. The attorneys of Arman Babajanian announced their intention to address
the RA Constitution Court and the European Court of Human Rights.
