Sakunts: “Initiating these criminal cases aims at political prosecution”
14:51, February 20, 2017 | News, Other news
At this stage, the criminal prosecution against Vartan Oskanian’s son is motivated by Oskanian’s political activities; information on potential initiation of criminal proceedings against Seyran Ohanyan may be also viewed in a similar context. This observation was made by human rights activist Artur Sakunts in his interview to Lragir.am .
“Definitely, the criminal proceedings are politically motivated and aim at political persecution. While the contents of the proceedings contain criminal elements, they still pursue political aims”, Sakunts said.
He recalls an attempt of similar criminal prosecution against Vartan Oskanian in terms of Civilitas Foundation. The prosecution was initiated at the stage when there were rumors that Oskanian might run for the presidential elections. According to Sakunts, the authorities regularly use that tool of criminal prosecution against certain persons trying to enter the active politics or take actions that may disturb the authorities.
He recalled similar precedents in the past; the authorities persecuted businessman Khachatur Sukiasyan after he expressed his clear and public support to Levon Ter-Petrosyan in 2008. The same happened to Gagik Tsarukyan when he showed some activism. The authorities were worried and kept talking about rumors on Tsarukyan’s non-compliance with tax obligations. But after Gagik Tsarukyan “grew quiet”, as the human rights activist put it, the results of those inspections showed as if everything was all right.
“Regretfully, the Armenian corrupt system spoils every person with business capacities or occupying quite a high position; all of them take part in corruption schemes and are vulnerable. And for this purpose, the authorities use the so-called dossiers applied as the sword of Damocles over any activism where they can see any risk”, he mentioned.
According to Sakunts, corruption is a threat to the national security and the authorities use such corruption threatening the national security to make intact their own power and to secure their own safety.
“In other words, the authorities in their whole nature threaten the national security. At the same time, this situation shows that those who make a political claim are vulnerable and have vulnerable features they should take into account before starting their activity. And here, there is an essential question for those who claim for activism: are they ready to bring to light those corruption schemes or would they again take the passive side and give up their activism for the concerns of maintaining their existence under the pressure or getting rid of the threats? This is a dilemma; it’s them who should make a choice,” he added.
According to the human rights activist, this will also show whether those persons are ready to take at any price the path to change the corrupt authorities.