Prominent commander of Armenian liberation movement, Ashot Erkat,  captured - human rights activist

ArmInfo.  Yesterday afternoon, a dry piece of news appeared in the news feed: Ashot  Minasyan (better known as Ashot Yerkat) was taken to the Sisian  police station for transfer to Vardashen prison. Human rights  activist Ruben Melikyan wrote about this on his Facebook page.

"This difficult news was not unexpected. It was already reported a  few days ago - the two-year charge against Ashot Minasyan entered  into legal force and was sent for execution. It was a matter of days.  What happened? In a fabricated case related to 2021, the court of  first instance sentenced Ashot Yerkat to 2 years in prison, but gave  a suspended sentence. Then the prosecutor filed an appeal to the  appellate court, and the suspended part was overturned - the sentence  should have been applied in practice. Then the defense lawyer filed  an appeal to the Court of Cassation, but the case was not accepted  for consideration. So, this difficult news was not unexpected, but it  caused a terrible feeling of injustice. Suffocating injustice. We all  supposedly do our job, and then we find out that this highly  respected and very worthy person has been taken away from us. Then we  scream: "This is wrong!" Then nothing changes. Then we continue  : Yesterday, a prominent commander was captured "Ashot  Yerkat, a member of the Armenian liberation movement. We are on  opposite sides of the bars. And in fact, it's not even clear which  side of the bars the prison is on," Melikyan noted.

As a postscript, he added that lawyer Mihran Poghosyan believes the  actions of the Cassation Court, which dismissed the lawyer's appeals,  are clearly unlawful. As a reminder, on October 16, the Criminal  Court of Appeals ordered Ashot Minasyan, commander of a volunteer  unit during the Nagorno-Karabakh War, "Ashot Yerkat," to be sent to  prison for the illegal acquisition, transportation, and possession of  firearms, ammunition, and explosives. The Criminal Court of Appeals  overturned the trial court's decision to grant him a suspended  sentence of one year and 10 months, sentencing him to imprisonment in  a penal colony for the same term.

As a reminder, Ashot Minasyan was arrested in connection with a  criminal case opened on November 14, 2020, for allegedly plotting  murder. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Investigators then reported  that they found a large quantity of weapons and ammunition on him.