Watchdog

Armenian prison officials have joined international human rights groups in calling for the release of opposition newspaper editor Arman Babajanian, who was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports.

Babajanian, whose jail sentence is due to end on September 16, was diagnosed by a prison doctor last month.

Friends and supporters say he is in urgent need of treatment at a civilian hospital as the tumor is impairing his vision.

The Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the young editor could be left "handicapped for life," and a top representative of Human Rights Watch sent an open letter to Justice Minister Gevorg Danielian on July 29 urging that Armenian government to provide Babajanian with "the highest possible standard of treatment."

On July 31, the prison hospital requested that a state commission examine the case and consider Babajanian's early release.

But a spokesman for the state Human Rights Office told RFE/RL on August 3 that they "have no information yet about any extraordinary meetings of the commission."

Babajanian, who founded and ran the opposition newspaper "Zhamanak," has been in prison since 2006 after being found guilty of forging documents to evade military service. Rights groups and supporters say the charges were trumped up.

Authorities in the ethnic Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh region are refusing to allow Jehovah's Witnesses and another nontraditional religious group from legally operating in the self-proclaimed republic, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports.

A new law adopted by the Karabakh parliament obligated all religious denominations to reregister with a government department on religious affairs within a six-month period.

Department head Ashot Sargsian told RFE/RL on July 31 that Jehovah's Witnesses and another religious group, Rebirth of Fire, were effectively banned on the basis of a "negative expert conclusion" that cites proselytism and "methods of psychological influence" by those groups as being in violation of the law in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Artur Ispirian, a Yerevan-based lawyer for the Jehovah's Witnesses, dismissed the explanation, saying the Karabakh law does not define proselytism.

Levon Sardarian, a Fire of Rebirth leader, denounced the government claims as "unfounded" and "ludicrous."

Both Ispirian and Sardarian said they will challenge the decision in court. Sardarian told RFE/RL that "we will certainly continue to operate...we are ready for any persecution."

All other religious organizations active in the region have been officially registered. Nagorno-Karabakh was captured from Azerbaijan by Armenian forces in a war that ended in 1994.