A court in Armenia handed down heavy jail sentences...

A court in Armenia handed down heavy jail sentences against seven men convicted of a shooting attack in the country's parliament which left the prime minister and seven other people dead. The ringleader of the group, former journalist Naini Unanian, and five others, were given life imprisonment while a seventh man got 14 years. Until earlier this year the accused would have risked the death penalty.
The seven burst into the parliament during a session on October 27, 1999 killing prime minister Vazguen Sarkissian, parliamentary speaker Karen Demirchian and six other public figures.
Before being captured they also held the occupants of the building hostage for several hours, demanding that the country's entire leadership resign.
They were sentenced on charges of treason, terrorism and murdering top-ranking figures.
They have two weeks in which to appeal. The case had come to the limelight this year, with many Armenian politicians saying the country should not abolish its death penalty laws so as to allow the convicts to be sentenced to death for the attack.
[In fact, in April Armenia's national assembly approved a new criminal code which replaced the death penalty with life imprisonment but an amendment was introduced under which those convicted of terrorist acts would be liable for death if the crimes had been committed prior to the entry into force of the new criminal code. On September 9, 2003 Armenia ratified the sixth protocol of the European convention on human rights, abolishing capital punishment in peacetime, Ed].