Court of Appeals refuses to free another Founding Parliament member
Armenia’s Court of Appeals today refused to set free Varuzhan Avetisyan, another arrested member of the Founding Parliament movement that is going to start street protests against the regime starting April 24. Earlier this week, the court rejected lawyers’ appeals against a lower court’s decision to keep Founding Parliament leaders Zhirayr Sefilyan, Pavel Manukyan, Gevorg Safaryan and Garegin Chukaszyan in two-month pretrial custody. Senior members of Founding Parliament – Zhirayr Sefilyan, Pavel Manukyan, Garegin Chukaszyan, Varuzhan Avetisyan and Gevorg Safaryan -were arrested on April 7 on suspicion of planning to stir up ‘mass disturbances’ at the sites of genocide centenary commemorations on April 24. All were taken into two-month custody pending trial. Another Founding Parliament activist, Aram Hakobyan, was charged with keeping arms and ammunition, but was released on bail.
