Former director of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund Ara Vardanyan will remain in custody. We learned about this from his lawyer Yervand Varosyan.

“Today Mnatsakan Harutyunyan, Judge of the Criminal Court of Appeal, did not find the strength (they were right, in fact, many of my friends) to satisfy our appeal and to release Ara Vardanyan, former Director of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund.

Ara Vardanyan will remain in prison when there are no conditions and grounds provided for by the law, when he has been in the status of a defendant for one year and three months in no way violates any condition of restraint imposed on him.

‘What does this means?’ This means that there is “special” attention towards Ara Vardanyan and the foundation by the authorities, otherwise such decisions were simply excluded.

And this in turn means that Ara Vardanyan is being persecuted and punished for his political and social activities only.

Freedom for all political prisoners, any political process under the guise of criminal prosecution is anti-state,” the lawyer noted.