In Armenia, Maralik residents demand to free oppositionist

In the city of Maralik, Shirak Region of Armenia, signatures are gathered under the petition in defence of Arutyun Urityan, head of the city election office of Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who was convicted to 7 years of imprisonment on charges of hampering elections and beating an election agent of Serzh Sarkisyan.

Within one day, out of from 6500 residents of Maralik, 500 citizens signed the petition in support of Urityan. The document addressed to the Court of Cassation emphasizes the injustice of the decision of the first instance court and demands a fair decision to be passed and to release Arutyun Urityan, a veteran of the Karabakh war and a "fighter for justice", from custody.

The petition also runs that should the Court of Cassation fail to make a just decision, the city dwellers will apply to the European Court for Human Rights.

We remind you also that for about a week already the townspeople of Razdan, another city in Armenia, are holding protest actions with a demand to release Sasun Mikaelyan, a resident of this city, a veteran of the Karabakh war and activist of the opposition. The latter, together with three other deputies, also activists of the opposition, by the decision of the Parliament was deprived of deputy's immunity and arrested on March 12. From the beginning of protest actions, the police has brought plenty of protesters to police stations, but so far failed to find out who the organizer of the protest actions in defence of the deputy was.