YEREVAN. – We have said from the very beginning that Armen Tavadyan was arrested for two reasons. Harutyun Harutyunyan, Director of 5th Channel television of Armenia, stated this during a meeting with reporters, and referring to the criminal case initiated against 5th Channel owner Armen Tavadyan.

"The first [reason] is that he is [second President] Robert Kocharyan's friend, and Robert Kocharyan is definitely a political prisoner,” he added. “The second is to suppress, complicate, and hinder the work of 5th Channel. I was very confident that those are the reasons, and now I'm happy that my suspicions have been confirmed."

"There is a wrong perception that political persecution can only be carried out against those who engage in active political activity," Hovhannes Khudoyan, Tavadyan's lawyer, said, for his part. "Any person whose persecution may to some extent aid certain political processes may be subject to political persecution."

Recently, the court granted the appeal by the legal defenders of 5th Channel television Armen Tavadyan against extending his arrest as a pretrial measure. On December 24 of the year past, Tavadyan was arrested on suspicion of an organized group bribing a witness, or a victim, to give false testimony in connection with the criminal case on the events that occurred in Yerevan on March 1, 2008.