Annual Prison Census 2008: Armenia
| Publisher | Committee to Protect Journalists |
| Publication Date | 4 December 2008 |
| Cite as | Committee to Protect Journalists, Annual Prison Census 2008: Armenia, 4 December 2008, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/494a3f5ea.html [accessed 5 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Journalists in prison as of December 1, 2008
ARMENIA: 1
Arman Babadzhanian, Zhamanak Yerevan
IMPRISONED: June 26, 2006
The Armenian prosecutor general summoned Babadzhanian, editor-in-chief of the opposition daily Zhamanak Yerevan, purportedly to question him as a witness in a criminal case. Instead, authorities charged Babadzhanian with forging documents to evade military service in 2002 and took him into custody, according to international press reports.
At his trial, Babadzhanian pleaded guilty to draft evasion but said the charge was in retaliation for the paper's critical reporting. Days before his arrest, Zhamanak Yerevan published an article questioning the independence of the prosecutor general's office, according to the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting.
On September 8, 2006, a district court in Armenia's capital, Yerevan, sentenced Babadzhanian to four years in prison on charges of forgery and draft evasion, according to the Armenian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. An appeals court later reduced the penalty by six months.
A government committee that oversees requests for early release has twice rejected Babadzhanian's appeals, according to local press reports.
