Watchdog

Armenia's highest criminal court has upheld a prison sentence for a newspaper editor and opposition leader for his alleged role in 2008 postelection violence in Yerevan, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports.

The Court of Cassation rejected appeals against two lower-court rulings on the case that were filed by both Nikol Pashinian and state prosecutors.

A Yerevan district court found Pashinian guilty on January 19 of stirring up the March 2008 mass disturbances after the disputed presidential election that left 10 people dead and more than 200 others injured.

It also sentenced the editor of the daily "Haykakan zhamanak" to seven years in prison.

An appeals court upheld the ruling on March 9. However, it also ruled Pashinian should serve only about half of the sentence in accordance with a general amnesty declared by the authorities in June.

The Court of Cassation dismissed as "baseless" Pashinian's lawyers' claims that the lower-court rulings were unfair and that their client was a victim of "political persecution."

It also rejected a separate appeal from prosecutors who had protested the lower-court decision to clear Pashinian of an alleged assault on a policeman during an October 2007 demonstration in Yerevan.

Defense lawyers condemned the latest court decision as politically motivated and reaffirmed their plans to take Pashinian's case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

The wife of imprisoned independent journalist Ernest Vardanean says her husband looked tired and depressed after hours of interrogation while jailed in Moldova's separatist Transdniester region, RFE/RL's Moldovan Service reports.

Irina Vardanean told RFE/RL on May 3 that she was allowed the see her husband in a Tiraspol jail for the second time since he was arrested on April 7 on charges of high treason and espionage.

"I saw him at 10 p.m. [last week] at the headquarters of the local 'Security Ministry' after a long day of interrogations," she said. "He looked very tired and depressed. They may be pressuring him to confess to things he never did."

The Moldovan government, the U.S. Embassy in Chisinau, the European Union, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have urged separatist authorities in Tiraspol to release Vardanean from detention and to ensure he receives a fair trial.

"We share the strong concerns of the EU and other heads of missions in Moldova regarding the denial of Mr. Vardanean's legal rights and urge that due process be respected," said a U.S. Embassy statement released at the end of April.

Transdniester authorities have thus far denied Vardanean's request to have a lawyer.

"The Moldovan lawyer we proposed was rejected by the 'Security Ministry' on the grounds that there are state secrets involved," Irina Vardanean said.

She thinks intervention by Russian officials is the best hope for her husband's case and has written a letter to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Vardanean said she is also trying to get a lawyer from Russia.

"Everybody knows that Russia has a great influence on the Transdniestrian leadership, but I would not be surprised if they reject a Russian lawyer as well," she said. Russia has military forces stationed in the Transdniester region.

On May 3, International Press Freedom Day, the Moldovan Journalists Union called on Russian journalists to join in protests against Vardanean's detention.

The Moldovan nongovernmental organization Promo-Lex -- which deals with human rights issues in Transdniester -- said that arrests in the separatist region on charges of high treason are not unusual.

Ion Manole, Promo-Lex director, told RFE/RL that charges such as high treason or espionage are easy to fake and are often used as a way to intimidate people. He said at least one such arrest took place on March 19 when Ilie Cazacu was arrested in the town of Bender and charged with high treason.

Vardanean's arrest came amid intensified efforts by international mediators to relaunch the 5+2 format negotiations that seek to resolve the Transdniester conflict.

The Transdniester region -- which is mainly populated by ethnic Russians and Ukrainians -- broke away from Moldova in 1990 and has been de facto independent since the end of a short war against Moldovan forces in 1992, although it is not recognized by any countries.