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.