Covering events from January - December 2003

In line with its human rights commitments to the Council of Europe, Armenia abolished capital punishment in peacetime. However, it failed to meet its commitments to the Council of Europe on conscientious objectors to compulsory military service, who continued to be imprisoned. The authorities detained hundreds of protesters who took part in peaceful opposition rallies to contest the outcome of the presidential elections.

Background

In March incumbent President Kocharian won presidential elections that were marred by widespread voting irregularities, including ballot box stuffing, and intimidation and violence towards independent and opposition election monitors. Mass opposition rallies protested at illegal election practices. Following international criticism, the President acknowledged that the elections had not met international standards and set up a commission of inquiry to investigate reported irregularities. Nevertheless, parliamentary elections in May were likewise flawed by reported ballot box stuffing and intimidation of international observers. Parties that supported the President won a large majority in parliament.

Administrative arrests

Some 100 protesters who participated in peaceful demonstrations after the presidential elections were reportedly sentenced to short prison terms after being convicted of disrupting public order. Reportedly denied access to lawyers, they were sentenced in closed trials without legal representation. In April the Armenian Constitutional Court declared the arrests unlawful.

  • Prisoner of conscience Artur Sakunts, Chairman of the Vanadzor branch of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly (HCA), was released from prison on 25 March after serving a 10-day sentence. He was arrested after he attempted to organize a public meeting on 15 March on the findings of HCA election monitoring. He was tried the same day and convicted of "disobeying the authorities" (Article 182 of the Armenian Administrative Code). He was not permitted access to a lawyer before or during his trial. His arrest and the firebombing of the Vanadzor HCA office in the early hours of 14 March raised fears of a campaign to prevent the HCA from carrying out legitimate human rights work.

Unfair trial concerns

In December Nairi Unanyan and five co-accused were sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Yerevan for their part in the October 1999 attack on the Armenian parliament in which eight deputies and government officials, including Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkisian and parliamentary Speaker Karen Demirchian, were killed. There were concerns about the fairness of the trial and the widespread support for imposing the death penalty in the case.

Proceedings in the case had been accompanied since the 1999 arrests by concerns about due process and the detention conditions of those detained in connection with the arrests. These included allegations of torture and ill-treatment, difficulties in access to defence lawyers, lack of access to families, and denial of access to independent medical practitioners. Widespread public and political support for the death penalty in this case had led to the Council of Europe warning Armenia that it would face suspension from the organization if any of the defendants were executed.

Death penalty

In May parliament adopted a new criminal code, which abolished the death penalty in peacetime but contained a provision that could have allowed use of the death penalty in the parliamentary shootings trial. In July President Kocharian commuted all outstanding death sentences to life in prison.

In September the newly elected parliament voted to abolish the death penalty in peacetime and to ratify Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights, one of the commitments Armenia undertook when it joined the Council of Europe in 2001. However, in November deputies voted unanimously to amend the new criminal code to deny the right of parole to prisoners serving life sentences for grave crimes including murder and assassination of a state or public figure. It was widely believed that the amendment was intended to ensure that those convicted in the parliamentary shootings case were never released.

Conscientious objection

Parliament adopted a law in December that provided for unarmed military service of three years or alternative civilian service under the Ministry of Defence for three and a half years – almost double the length of ordinary military service.

Conscientious objectors continued to be sentenced to prison terms despite Council of Europe requirements that all those imprisoned for conscientious objection should be freed. By December, prison sentences of between one and two years had been imposed on at least 27 men, all Jehovah's Witnesses, for conscientious objection. Five more had been arrested and were awaiting trial. A further two had been released on parole.

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