The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday ordered Armenian authorities to pay a total of 7,500 euros ($8,600) in compensation to two former opposition activists who were arrested during 2008 post-election protests in Yerevan.
The plaintiffs, Grigor Voskerchian and Masis Ayvazian, ran regional campaign offices of Levon Ter-Petrosian, the main opposition candidate in the disputed February 2008 presidential election. They also actively participated in nonstop demonstrations staged by Ter-Petrosian in protest against alleged vote rigging.
Both men were arrested when security forces dispersed protesters camped out in Yerevan’s Liberty Square early on March 1, 2008. Riot police and interior troops went on to break up renewed protests that were staged by Ter-Petrosian supporters later on that day. Eight protesters and two police servicemen were killed as a result.
Voskerchian, who coordinated Ter-Petrosian’s election campaign in the town of Abovian, was subsequently sentenced to two years in prison for organizing “mass disturbances.” He denied the charges as politically motivated.
The ECHR ruled that Armenian courts did not have sufficient grounds to allow investigators to keep Voskerchian under pre-trial arrest. The 62-year-old is to receive 3,000 euros in damages.
Ayvazian, for his part, received a suspended two-year jail sentence at the time for assaulting law-enforcement officers on March 1, 2008. He too strongly denied the accusations. The ECHR said that Ayvazian must be compensated financially because he was kept in pre-trial detention longer than was allowed by an Armenian court.
Both former activists hailed the Strasbourg court’s rulings, while complaining that they are long overdue.
Dozens of Ter-Petrosian loyalists, among them Armenia’s current Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, were jailed on controversial charges stemming from the 2008 violence. Many of them filed lawsuits to the ECHR.
Pashinian ordered a renewed criminal investigation into the bloodshed shortly after he swept to power in May. In July, the Special Investigative Service (SIS) arrested former President Robert Kocharian widely blamed for the post-election crackdown on the opposition. Armenia’s Court of Appeals freed Kocharian from custody more than two weeks later, saying that the ex-president enjoys legal immunity from prosecution.
Kocharian still stands accused of illegally using the armed forces against the protesters. He denies the accusation, saying that Pashinian is waging a “political vendetta” against him.