In Armenia, NGOs call authorities to defend Mariam Sukhudyan

Young members of a number of Armenian NGOs have addressed the president, prime minister and speaker of the parliament with an appeal to immediately publicly defend Mariam Sukhudyan, who is accused of disseminating false information about sexual harassments of pupils by a boarding school teacher.

The letter addressed to the country leaders expresses support of the NGOs named "Ecolur", "Gitelik Centre", Helsinki Association and other organizations to Mariam Sukhudyan, an activist of the youth green movement "SOS Tekhut", aiming to protect forests in the north of Armenia.

"We express our support to Mariam Sukhudyan as an unfairly pursued defender of vulnerable layers of the society. These persecutions are a real shame for law enforcement bodies, who, instead of punishing those guilty, are not just trying to hide the crime, but also blame the person who had raised the problem," runs the letter.

The authors of the appeal are trying to warn that such behaviour of law enforcers is a threat not only to the justice, but also to the freedom of speech and civil and human rights movements.

"We declare to everyone who tries, by persecuting Sukhudyan, to stop the civil and human rights activity of young people in Armenia: all what you do will result in a still more powerful movement in the name of such persons like Mariam and in the name of fair Armenia," the document further says.

The authors state that the authorities' refusal to voice out their defence of Sukhudyan will be regarded as encouragement to concealment of the crime.

Nonna Galstyan, Ms Sukhudyan's advocate, said at today's press conference that the charge against Sukhudyan of deliberate slander is groundless and does not follow from the circumstances of the case. The advocate has expressed her bewilderment with the course of preliminary investigation, which, according to her story, is accompanied by "frank lawlessness."

In particular, the criminal case is based on evidences of only one pupil, whereas evidences of other schoolchildren were not legally assessed at all. According to Ms Galstyan, the pupil, whose evidences had been taken as the basis, refused from what he had said earlier under pressure.

See earlier reports: "Action in support of "SOS Tekhut" activist held in Yerevan," "In Armenia, shooter at Mikael Danielyan acquitted," "In Armenia, human rights activists try to release imprisoned oppositionists."