The verdict against Volodya Avetisyan is the authorities' cynical gauntlet thrown against the Armenian society, the Preparliament civic movement says in a statement.
"It is obvious that the given judgment is anti-Armenian and it is dictated by the country's authorities. Even if justice in Armenia is experiencing crisis, such a judgment is an open display of cruelty. In the meantime, the ruling regime's nervous and unbalanced behavior demonstrates that its death is in the offing", says the statement. The Preparliament also urges the people to take up the gauntlet thrown by the authorities and to force the regime to quit. "The regime will be liquidated by the centenary of the Armenian Genocide. We have only 41 weeks left. We will become the masters of our country", the statement says.
On Thursday the Trial Court of Yerevan's Arabkir and Kanaker-Zeitun communities sentenced Avetisyan to six years in jail. Avetisyan pleads non-guilty. He says that the ruling regime is just punishing him for the protest action he organized before the arrest.
Avetisyan was arrested on 19 Sept 2013. On Sept 20, 2013, Armenia's Defense Ministry reported that Avetisyan took a $2,000 bribe from some Zakaryan against promise to exempt his grandson from military service. Avetisyan's comrades are sure that the charge has been framed up. Before the arrest Avetisyan held a sit-down strike in Liberty Square to claim better social conditions for Nagorno- Karabakh war veterans.