Armenian authorities assert that Pashinyan's wilful violation of custody regulations caused his transfer to another prison

Nikol Pashinyan, a convicted opposition activist and editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Aikakan Zhamanak", was moved from prison "Kosh" to prison "Artik" because of his numerous malicious violations of prison regulations. This was stated by Arsen Babayan, press secretary of the Criminal Executive Department of the Ministry of Justice of Armenia.

According to his version, the convict's relocation was also caused by his habit of creating conflict situation with other prisoners.

The press service of the above Department, disseminated on December 2, urges certain media and political forces to refrain from politicizing "the fact of applying punishment to Pashinyan for his misbehaviour."

Lusine Sahakyan, one of Pashinyan's advocates, told journalists that the aim of her client's transfer from one criminal-correction institution (CCI) to another was to toughen his custody regime by changing his general prison for the closed one. In her opinion, the justification for her client's had been invented by the administration of CCI "Kosh" well in advance. Ms Sahakyan said that she had already filed complaints about the penalty imposed on Pashinyan to the Administrative Court.

According to Anna Akopyan, Nikol's wife and director of the "Aikakan Zhamanak", her husband's transfer to tougher custody regime was aimed to hamper his journalistic activities, which he continues even in prison.