video by © HELSINKI ASSOCIATION

At the beginning of 2017 renowned international Economist Intelligence Unit and Freedom House centers lowered the position of Armenia in their lists of level of democracy and freedoms.

Armenia was ranged among authoritarian countries, appearing next to Nigeria, Mauritania, Kuwait, Honduras, Nicaragua and Tanzania.

The reasons for the decline of level of democracy in Armenia are discussed in the video.

Union of Informed Citizens

http://en.a1plus.am/1259475.html

video by © Veles NGO

On April 28, at 10:00, the Court of First Instance of Kentron and Nork-Marash Administrative Districts (Judge Mnatsakan Martirosyan) will examine the fabricated criminal case against human rights defender Marina Poghosyan.

Please attend the trial and cover it, thus contributing to the transparency and objectivity of the investigation.

video by © HELSINKI ASSOCIATION

Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday there is insufficient evidence to remove Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from office over his connection to a Panama Papers scandal and has ordered further investigation into the allegations of corruption.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (Photo: Z A Balti)

Sharif was implicated in the Panama Papers affair last year when leaked documents appeared to show that his daughter and two sons owned offshore holding companies registered in the British Virgin Islands and used them to buy London properties.

As the court made its much-awaited verdict, protesters requesting Sharif to step down gathered in front of the building as well as Sharif’s supporters did. Some 1,500 police officers kept them apart.

In the end, however, the verdict proved to be anti-climactic.

“None of the five judges on the court bench accepted Sharif’s defense and their doubts were clear,” Fawad Hussain Chaudhry, a renowned lawyer and spokesperson for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf told the OCCRP.

“Two judges declared Sharif guilty and called for his disqualification,” he added, but they were out-voted by “the three others who ordered further investigations.”

A joint investigation team (JIT) will be formed to examine the money trail within 60 days. Nawaz and his two sons, Hassan and Hussain, will appear before the JIT.

The Sharif family claimed that their London properties were bought legally through Qatari investments and submitted a letter from a Qatari prince in their defense.

“The letter submitted by a Qatari businessman in defense of Prime Minister Sharif was considered inadmissible by the court and a further probe is ordered,” Islamabad-based legal expert Yasser Latif Hamdani told the OCCRP.

The affair comes ahead of next year’s general election at which Imran Khan, the chair of the opposition Pakistan Movement of Justice party (PTI) is to challenge Sharif.

“What moral right does Nawaz have to remain premier when a criminal investigation is being launched against him?” opposition leader Imran Khan asked the media after the verdict,according to The Guardian.

“If Nawaz is cleared after JIT’s investigation, he can return to the seat,” he said.

Written by Haroon Janjua

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/6361-panama-papers-pakistan-pm-survives-corruption-ruling-for-now

On April 25, at 10:00, the Court of First Instance of Kentron and Nork-Marash Administrative Districts (Judge Mnatsakan Martirosyan) will examine the fabricated criminal case against human rights defender Marina Poghosyan.

Please attend the trial and cover it, thus contributing to the transparency and objectivity of the investigation.

Brazil’s Supreme Court Judge ordered investigations Tuesday into 108 people, including eight cabinet ministers and dozens of MPs, suspected of involvement in the Petrobras bribery scandal.

Brazilian Supreme Court (Photo: Fabio Pozzebom/ABr)

Described by Reuters as “a Who’s Who of Brazilian politics,” the list lays to rest months of speculation and names nearly a third of President Michel Temer’s cabinet, including his chief of staff Eliseu Padilha.

Also named are the leaders of both houses of Congress, Rio de Janeiro’s mayor during the Olympics and four former presidents.

President Temer has “temporary immunity” from criminal investigation, as Brazilian Presidents cannot be charged for crimes committed outside their term in office, Política Estadão reported.

“The list is enormous… it shows that the [political] environment was rotten,” said political consultant Thiago de Aragão, calling it the largest ever investigation launched into politicians in Brazil, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The politicians were named by 77 employees of construction firm Odebrecht, who admitted paying US$1 billion in bribes for contracts with state-owned oil company Petrobras, the BBC reported.

The scheme saw money taken out of Petrobras and into politicians’ pockets and party slush funds.

Odebrecht executives, including former CEO Marcelo Odebrecht, claim they paid so many bribes that the company set up a special department to manage the money, according to the BBC.

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/6311-brazil-to-investigate-8-ministers-dozens-of-mps-for-bribery

On April 18, at 10:00, the Court of First Instance of Kentron and Nork-Marash Administrative Districts (Judge Mnatsakan Martirosyan) will examine the fabricated criminal case against human rights defender Marina Poghosyan.

Please attend the trial and cover it, thus contributing to the transparency and objectivity of the investigation.

On April 13, at 10: 00, the Court of First Instance of Kentron and Nork-Marash Administrative Districts (Judge Mnatsakan Martirosyan) will examine the fabricated criminal case against human rights defender Marina Poghosyan.

Please attend the trial and cover it, thus contributing to the transparency and objectivity of the investigation.

video by © HELSINKI ASSOCIATION

Criminial prosecutions against Human Rights Defender Marina Poghosyan was included in the US Department of  State’s Annual  Report, particularly: “During the year human rights organizations and the media reported on the continued harassment of and threats against human rights defender Marina Poghosyan. Poghosyan’s NGO, Veles, provided legal support to victims of moneylenders allegedly linked to the government.”

The full text of the report is available here – https://www.usa.am/pdf/hr2016.pdf

Hrachya Gevorgyan, who died on April 5 in Armenia’s Armavir Penitentiary, was not averse to ruffling the feathers of prison officials by speaking out on violations he witnessed on the inside.

Nina Karapetyan, Gevorgyan’s lawyer and president of the Helsinki Association, links her client’s death with the fact that he was so outspoken and that many of his articles about the need for prison reform appeared in the press.

Gevorgyan was particularly tough on the Nubarashen Penitentiary, calling it the Nubarashen business center.

In his correspondence with the Helsinki Association, whose lawyers supported Gevorgyan for the past six years, Gevorgyan wrote about the drug business being conducted in Nubarashen prison by the guards and other employees.

Based on Gevorgyan’s testimony regarding the drugs, bribery and other abuses, including the beating of convicts, inside Nubarashen, Armenia’s Special Investigative Service launched two criminal cases.

Gevorgyan also claimed that guards bribed inmates from 30,000-50,000 AMD to be granted family visitation rights.

According to a statement released by Armenia’s Department of Corrections, Gevorgyan died suddenly on April 5. The justice ministry ordered an administrative examination of the death. Nina Karapetyan says it’s all for show and doesn’t believe anyone will be held accountable.

Karapetyan says that Gevorgyan, who had been suffering from chronic Hepatitis-C, arterial hypertension and bronchitis, never was adequately treated while in jail. Relatives had to bring him medicine.

Armenia’s justice ministry begs to differ, saying that Gevorgyan had been examined several times and was receiving methadone.

Arman Veziryan says the examinations were the result of pressure brought by the European Court of Human Rights.

To press home his demand for adequate medical treatment, Gevorgyan went on hunger strike several times. The most recent lasted 57 days.

Gevorgyan also suffered from Parkinson’s Disease, listed in Armenia’s penal code as an illness that can be the basis for early condition release.

Gevorgyan, forced to use a wheelchair since 2014, had claimed that he was poisoned at the Convicts’ Hospital while receiving an injection. He was transferred to a private hospital where he remained in a coma for ten days.

Gevorgyan’s mother, Nakhshoun Yengibaryan, tried to set herself on fire near the presidential palace in 2013 to protest her son’s treatment.

Karapetyan told Hetq that her client say his mother once in six years while in jail. “Prison officials said he was on a wheelchair and that they couldn’t take him for visitations.

Arayik Papikyan, another lawyer, says that inmates can buy a good cell in prison for $5,000.

All the lawyers I interviewed agree that prison officials see their jobs as business ventures, and that the more people behind bars the better the business.

Therefore, they believe pretrial detention is used almost exclusively, rather than bail, and why conditional early release is so rare.

The lawyers say that Hrachya Gevorgyan’s case isn’t unique for Armenia. There are many sick inmates languishing in Armenia’s jails and prisons.

Attorney Papikyan sums up the situation by saying, “Sadly, the view is that inmates are a potential source of revenue, not individuals. The more the number of inmates and the longer they stay inside, the greater the amount of illegal revenue.”

Photo of Hrachya Gevorgyan: epress.am

http://hetq.am/eng/news/77614/outspoken-inmate-dies-in-armenian-prison-lawyers-express-their-suspicions.html/