Organizer of terror act in Armenian Parliament asks for release

Nairi Unanyan, sentenced to life under the case of a terror act committed in the Armenian Parliament on October 27, 1999, has filed a petition on conditional early relief (CER). Human rights defenders doubt that he will be set free.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in December 2003, seven people were convicted under the terror act case. According to investigators, Nairi Unanyan was the terrorists' leader.

Unanyan has filed a CER motion, Nona Navikyan, the head of the PR division of the Criminal-Executive Service of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) of Armenia, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent today. She has noted that the motion is under consideration.

In the opinion of Zhanna Aleksanyan, the head of the NGO "Journalists for Human Rights", Unanyan's petition will not be satisfied. She told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that Unanyan, having served 20 years of his term, is legally entitled to submit a CER motion. Should his behaviour during these 20 years meet the established criteria for CER, then the court will be obliged to release him. "Another point is how he'll live in the society. October 27, 1999, is one of the cruellest pages in the history of Armenia," she has noted.

Ms Aleksanyan believes that it's no coincidence that Unanyan has filed his CER motion on the eve of October 27. In her opinion, the prisoner thereby wants to say that he still sticks to his credo. "If so, then, with such beliefs he won't be able to live in this society [...] His position is unacceptable," she has concluded.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 22, 2019 at 11:47 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.