Armenian Prosecutor Slams ‘lies And False Reports’ Before February 19th Elections

Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian on February 12 deplored what he termed “lies and false reports” circulated by opposition candidates in the February 19 presidential election, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reported.

He warned, as Prime Minister and presidential front-runner Serzh Sarkisian has done, that persons who make “overtly slanderous” allegations will be required to answer before the law, but did not cite examples of such allegations. Hovsepian did, however, defend the nephew of Deputy Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian, whom journalists photographed and filmed participating in a scuffle on February 6 in the town of Artashat with supporters of opposition presidential candidate and former President Levon Ter-Petrossian (see “RFE/RL Newsline,” February 7, 2008).

Hovsepian said that footage does not show the younger Abrahamian “throwing stones or hitting anyone.” Following the rejection on February 11 by the Constitutional Court of his complaint about negative media coverage of his election campaign (see “RFE/RL Newsline,” February 8 and 11, 2008), Ter-Petrossian flew to Moscow, where according to unconfirmed Russian media reports he met with First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

A Ter-Petrossian spokesman in Moscow Smbat Karakhanian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service only that Ter-Petrossian’s talks there were “very productive and important.” He did not elaborate.

Source Radio Free Europe

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