Dajat Vardapetyan, a deputy in Armenia’s Parliament and President of the Georgian-Armenia Union, told reporters today that he sees no political overtones to the arrest of Armen Chakhalyan, brother of Georgian-Armenian activist Vahagn Chakhalyan.
Chakhalyan and others were arrested on June 28 in the Ninotzminda village of Gondoura after a brawl broke out.
Chakhalyan had named Saakashvili and Georgian Prime Minister Vano Merabshvili in the suit, accusing them of making unsubstantiated charges against him for which he was never prosecuted.
Vahagn Chakhalyan, an Armenian activist from Akhalkalak, had taken Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to court for making unsubstantiated charges against him for which he was never prosecuted.
The release of political prisoners and other amnestied persons, including Vahagn Chakhalyan caused furious reactions from the opposition party, United National Movement. During the last weeks, and especially yesterday their representatives have been making incorrect statements, trying thus to disseminate anti-Armenian sentiments in the multinational Georgian society.
In his first official statement after being released from Georgian prison, Javakhk activist Vahagn Chakhalyan said that the only reason he wound up in jail in the first place was that he demanded that Georgian authorities respect the rights of Javakhk residents and that he criticized the persecution of Javakhk Armenians by the Saakashvili regime.
About a half hour ago, Vahagn Chakhalyan was released from a Georgian prison where he was serving ten years on an illegal weapons and fomenting a public disturbance charge.
United Javakhk leader Vahagn Chakhalyan is expected to be freed under an amnesty bill passed by the Georgian Parliament on December 21.
Hundreds of Armenians took to the streets of Akhalkalak today, demanding the release of Javakhk-Armenian activist Vahagn Chakhalyan.