“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot
survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable,
for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves
amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling
through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.
For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar
to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he
appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He
rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night
to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so
that it can no longer resist.” — MarcusTullius Cicero, Roman
Senate, circa 45 B.C.
A somber death knell for civil rights intensifies in the Armenian
homeland, dreadfully unabated from within the Republic and willfully
unnoticed outside of it. Over the last several days, Armenian men and
women simply have been disappeared into prisons, their children left
parentless, their spouses left helpless. As if days of beatings and
excessive force by policing authorities were not enough, the Armenian
citizen now bears witness to the unyielding agony of the unlawful
pretrial detention.
The Armenian Rights Watch Committee (ARWC) condemns the continued
pretrial detention of numerous Armenians arrested in the wake of
recent protests in Armenia against the Republic’s ruling regime. The
blood not yet dry on those very streets liberated from oppression just
25 years ago, the ruling authorities now find appetite to trample
unapologetically on the laws protecting citizens against unlawful
pretrial detention. In doing so, they again hinder hope for civil and
human rights and press another nail into the coffin of the rule of
law.
The rules governing pretrial detention are clear. Article 5(3) of the
European Convention on Human Rights states that “[e]veryone arrested
or detained . . . shall be entitled to trial within a reasonable time
or to release pending trial.” (Emphasis added). This norm is echoed
in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which
requires, at Article 9(3), that “[a]nyone arrested or detained on a
criminal charge . . . shall be entitled to trial within a reasonable
time or to release.” (Emphasis added). Armenia ratified the European
Convention on Human Rights in 2002. It acceded to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1993. Ironically, Article 6
of the very Constitution which ruling authorities imposed upon the
Armenian people only a few months ago—amidst vote-rigging and
electoral fraud—expressly incorporates these international obligations
into the law of the Republic.
Pretrial detention is warranted only in specific circumstances—and
only after a showing of certain factors by authorities. The case law
of the European Court makes clear that the seriousness of the offense,
the danger actually posed to society by the accused, the applicable
penalties and flight risk are factors that should be considered in
pretrial detention circumstances. See Punzelt v. Czech Republic
(31315/96) [2000] ECHR 169 (25 April 2000) at par. 73-76. The Court
has emphasized the need for authorities to conduct proceedings with
“special diligence” when the accused is in pretrial detention. W. v.
Switzerland (14379/88 [1993] ECHR 1 (26 January 1993) at par. 30.
The continued deprivation of liberty, therefore, requires an actual
showing by the authorities: “The persistence of a reasonable suspicion
that the person arrested has committed an offence is a condition sine
qua non for the validity of the continued detention but, after a
certain lapse of time, it no longer suffices: the Court must then
establish whether the other grounds cited by the judicial authorities
continued to justify the deprivation of liberty.” See Assenov and
others v. Bulgaria (24760/84) [1998] ECHR 98 (28 October 1998) at par.
154 (emphasis added). The rule is well established in American
jurisprudence as well, requiring the government to make an actual
showing that the accused is a “flight risk” and/or a “danger to the
community” to warrant continued incarceration.
In light of what is nearly universal jurisprudence in civilized
societies, the regime’s blatant disregard of the law governing
pretrial detention is nothing short of appalling. To be clear, as to
a number of those arrested by the regime over the last few weeks, the
ARWC has yet to learn of any sufficient showing for the continued
deprivation of their liberty—let alone a compelling one.
Cynics will lobby that we are injecting law into a world of political
realities. However, while civil society in Armenia continues to be
gutted by acts patently disregarding the rule of law, political forces
should remain mindful that one cannot embrace the ruler but claim
innocence when he rules. To be clear: even in politics, there must be
a line in the sand—and the trampling of civil and human rights is
usually a pretty good indicator for where that line should be.
ARMENIAN RIGHTS WATCH COMMITTEE-ARWC
ARMENIAN BAR ASSOCIATION
