Armenia: convicted journalist Babadzhanyan can be early released

It is possible that Armand Babadzhanyan, editor-in-chief of the "Zhamanak-Yerevan" newspaper, convicted for evasion of mandatory army service and serving his term at the criminal corrective establishment, will be released ahead of time, early this August.

Mr Babadzhanyan has already twice applied to competent bodies for his conditional early relief, but every time his petitions were rejected.

However, on July 4, the court of general jurisdiction of the Nork-Marash community removed the barrier before the next consideration of his petition to the commission in charge of making decisions on conditional early relief of prisoners. The court has nullified the decision of the Criminal Corrective Establishment "Convicts' Hospital" of April 3 that A. Babadzhanyan needs social-psychological work.

The court has made this decision on the basis of Babadzhanyan's complaint. According to the law, the administration of the criminal corrective establishment has no right to ignore the decision of the court.