Master woodworker Aram Virabyan, seen here in Yerevan’s Vernisaj open-air market, is donating the proceeds of his sales to support the members of the Sasna Dzrer opposition group and to Artur Sargsyan, who was able to bring food to them when they seized a local police building in July.

“I will only keep 10%, I’m donating the rest to them,” Virabyan told this reporter today.

Virabyan knows Sargsyan, also a woodworker, and sees what he did on July 26 as a humanitarian act. The woodworker is calling on law enforcement to release his friend, now being held at the Nubarashen Penitentiary on charges of assisting the armed Sasna Dzrer group.

“They want to break Sargsyan’s spirit, but they can’t,” says Virabyan.

Virabyan’s table, some twenty meters in front of Sargsyan’s, is situated along the row of woodworkers’ stalls . This Saturday and Sunday, Sargsyan’s items will remain on sale at Vernisaj.

Arsen, Artur Sargsyan’s brother, says some 70 pieces have already been sold. The money was supposed to go towards paying Artur’s bail, but a court denied bail, keeping Artur in pre-trial detention.

The money will now be deposited into a bank account for when Artur is released. There’s a glass box placed on the stall where people can also donate money.

P.S. Artur Sargsyan, in jail since July 31, says he is innocent of the charges filed against him. Davit Gyurdjyan, his lawyer, says Artur is in poor health and hasn’t made any statements to law enforcement.