June 12, 2004 - 18:52 AMT
ANOTHER OPPOSITION ACTIVIST RELEASED IN YEREVAN
Member of the political council of the Republic opposition party, former Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutyunian was released last evening from Yerevan Center criminal-executive institution. As reported by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Armenia, the preventive punishment regarding V. Harutyunian was changed: he is released from custody having given a written undertaking not to leave the city. According to the source, Harutyunian not going to hamper the investigation process served as a basis for that decision. The criminal case against him is not ceased. It should be reminded that Harutyunian, arrested as part of the criminal proceedings instituted against the Justice bloc and its brothers-in-arms, was indicted for calls to violent overthrow of the constitutional order and insulting a representative of the authority. It should also be noted that in an interview with Liberty radio station head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan Vladimir Pryakhin noted that the indictment of V. Harutyunian is "weak and vague." The other day Pryakhin had a meeting over the issue with representatives of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Armenia and the defender of the interests of the prisoner.