PRESS RELEASE

Moscow, May 25, 1994

Three days ago in Stepanakert Captain Jurij Belechenko, military pilot of Azerbaijanian Air Force and Ukrainian citizen, was sentenced to death. He is accused in commitment of war crimes, in particularly - bombardments of several villages in Mardakert rayon of Azerbaijan, which resulted victims among civilians.

Fighting consistently for the abolishing of death penalty, as also for the immediate setting up the permanent international tribunal on war crimes (which statute has to exclude death penalty for any sort of crimes, as it was already provided by the statute of the ad hoc Tribunal on war crimes in ex-Yugoslavia), we consider that crimes as that ones Jurij Belechenko is accused in, must be judged by the international criminal institution with a sovranational jurisdiction, but not by the judicial authorities of Armenia, Azerbaijan or any third country.

Starting from this point, Radical Party organizes on Friday, May 27, at 3.00 PM, the demonstration in front of the Armenian embassy in Moscow (Armjanskij Per., 2), appealing to the Armenian President Mr. Levon Ter-Petrosjan:

- to use all your influence on the authorities of the Armenian community of Nagorno Karabakh in order to abolish death sentence against Jurij Belechenko;

- to undertake as a head of the Armenian state (which is member state of the United Nations) all the necessary steps in order to obtain the permanent international tribunal on war crimes to be created by the UN General Assembly during its next session (September - December 1994).

For further information call:

Moscow office of the Radical Party,

tel./fax 095-9239127