“We are extremely shocked by the attitude of the authorities, who have turned a deaf ear to the appeals of doctors and human rights activists,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Babajanian has nearly completed his sentence so we fail to understand why they insist on keeping him in prison. His condition is serious and the tumour could leave him handicapped for life.”

Reporters Without Borders has written to President Serzh Sargsyan urging him to pardon Babajanian.

Babajanian has been held since 26 June 2006, when he was arrested on a charge of evading military service under article 327 of the criminal code. The three-and-a-half-year sentence he received was condemned at the time by Reporters Without Borders as “disproportionate”. He is due to complete it at the start of September. All of his lawyer’s requests for early release have been rejected.

The founder and editor of Jamanak Yerevan, a daily published in Yerevan and Los Angeles. Babajanian was critical of the government. An article published in the newspaper on 13 July 2006, two and a half weeks after his arrest, referred to the highly sensitive subject of Armenia’s dispute since 1994 with neighbouring Azerbaijan over the Upper Karabakh region. It was headlined “Peace is the only solution.”

An opposition demonstration was held under the banner of “Freedom!” in Yerevan on 29 July to demand Babajanian’s immediate release.