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Monday, 14 June 2004
FORMER ARMENIAN DEFENSE MINISTER RELEASED FROM DETENTION
By empty (6/14/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Vagharshak Harutiunian was released late on 11 June following a plea on his behalf by Vladimir Pryakhin, the head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan, but the criminal charges against him have not been dropped, RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported. Harutiunian, a senior member of the Artarutiun opposition alliance, was one of a dozen oppositionists arrested in mid-April following the violent dispersal by police in Yerevan of participants in a peaceful demonstration calling for the resignation of President Robert Kocharian. Harutiunian was charged with seeking to overthrow the country\'s leadership, but Pryakhin said on 11 June the criminal case against him is \"weak.
Vagharshak Harutiunian was released late on 11 June following a plea on his behalf by Vladimir Pryakhin, the head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan, but the criminal charges against him have not been dropped, RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported. Harutiunian, a senior member of the Artarutiun opposition alliance, was one of a dozen oppositionists arrested in mid-April following the violent dispersal by police in Yerevan of participants in a peaceful demonstration calling for the resignation of President Robert Kocharian. Harutiunian was charged with seeking to overthrow the country\'s leadership, but Pryakhin said on 11 June the criminal case against him is \"weak.\" Both Pryakhin and Harutiunian\'s lawyer, Robert Grigorian, said that prosecutors have not yet specified the precise nature of Harutiunian\'s alleged offenses. (RFE/RL)