The Rise and Fall of Samvel Babayan
SUMMARY On September 18, 2004, former Defense Minister of Nagorno Karabakh Samvel Babayan was released from maximum-security prison in Shushi after being pardoned by the person whom he had been convicted of trying to assassinate in March 2000, Nagorno Karabakh President Arkady Ghukasyan. Samvel Babayan had spent a total of 55 months in detention, having been sentenced to 14 years during a trial in Stepanakert in February 2001. The release of the former military leader and acclaimed hero of the Artsakh war Samvel Babayan was not given an official explanation....