Watchdog

A Yerevan court has begun hearings in the case outspoken newspaper editor and opposition figure Nikol Pashinian, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports.

Pashinian, 34, is accused of organizing last year's deadly clashes in Yerevan between security forces and opposition protesters calling for a rerun of a disputed presidential election.

He was one of the most popular and passionate speakers at the antigovernment protests staged by opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian following the February 2008 presidential ballot.

Ten people were killed, and more than 200 others wounded, in those 2008 clashes between protesters and security forces, which led outgoing President Robert Kocharian to declare a state of emergency and order mass arrests of opposition activists.

Pashinian was among several senior opposition figures who went underground and avoided arrest.

Most turned themselves in after a general amnesty was declared in June.

Under the terms of the amnesty, Pashinian will walk free if he is convicted and sentenced to less than five years in prison.

In a statement issued on October 20, Ter-Petrosian's Armenian National Congress (HAK) described the charges against Pashinian as "absolutely baseless and fabricated" and again alleged a government cover-up of the worst street violence in the country's history.

Activists in Kazakhstan say the government is trying to frighten society with the recent manslaughter conviction of a leading human rights activist, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.

Yevgeny Zhovtis, director of the NGO Bureau of Human Rights, was sentenced to four year in prison last month for his role in a deadly traffic accident.

On October 19, an Almaty Oblast court in the city of Taldy-Qorghan upheld his conviction and sentence.

Activists and opposition leaders say the authorities are retaliating against Zhovtis's activities as a human rights defender.

An organization called the Group to Defend Zhovtis issued a statement today saying the "verdict goes against the principles of a free society and a democratic state. It is a mockery of Kazakhstan's obligations to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and a demonstration of disrespect to the international community's opinion, which demanded a fair trial for Yevgeny Zhovtis."

The statement concludes that the verdict against Zhovtis is an attempt by the Kazakh authorities "to frighten society and to return to a totalitarian system."