GENERAL PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE OF RNK NAMED THE HUNGER-STRIKE OF THE EX-MINISTER OF DEFENSE SAMVEL BABAYAN A "PROVOCATIVE AND FAR-FETCHED ACTION"

July 24, 2000 - 21:22 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - 24.07.2000, MEDIAMAX, YEREVAN. The General Prosecutor's Office of RNK rejects the demands of the ex-minister of defense of RNK Samvel Babayan (accused of organizing an attempt upon the life of the president of RNK Arkady Ghoukasian) which he had stated in his declaration. As was informed to MEDIAMAX in the General Prosecutor's Office of RNK, the Prosecutor's Office assesses the hunger-strike of

S.Babayan as a "provocative and far-fetched action, which aims at confusing the society and casting aspersions on the investigation".

In the statement of the General Prosecutor's Office it is said that the demand of S.Babayan to transfer the legal process to Armenia contradicts the present legislation of RNK, according to which the case must be considered in the court of the region where it had been realized.

Samvel Babayan also complained about the rough conditions of his keeping, in particular, he asserted that during the 4 months he spent in prison he was never taken out for a walk. "Samvel Babayan, who is in the investigation isolation cell of the department of National Defense of RNK, enjoys all the rights foreseen by law", is said in the statement of the General Prosecutor's Office of RNK.

As regards the statements of Babayan that brute force has been used toward him, then, as declares the General Prosecutor's Office of RNK, according to the statement of S.Babayan a special legal-medical examination was made, which didn't discover any traces of beating. Moreover, is said in the statement of the General Prosecutor's Office of RNK, representatives of a number of law-protecting organizations of Armenia also examined the physical condition of Babayan and they didn't fix cases of violation of legality.

On July 21 the ex-minister of defense of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh, Lieutenant-General Samvel Babayan stated through the Yerevan papers of his hunger-strike beginning July 19.