this is d.w. news line from early tensions rise in armenia and soldiers join an illegal demonstration against the government the defense ministry threatens to punish those involved protesters want the prime minister to resign. also coming up guilty as charged the only surviving suspect of the twenty fifteen paris terror attacks salam to slog is sentenced to twenty years in prison in belgium for his role in a police shootout. to switch off the giant

speakers that black music news and propaganda to the north it's all part of a change of tone ahead of historic summit between the two koreas this friday. thanks for joining us i'm marrying a evanston groups of soldiers in armenia have joined anti-government protests in the capital yet have on the demonstrations have been deemed illegal by the authorities and the defense ministry says the troops will be punished police arrested over two hundred demonstrators over the weekend including three prominent opposition politicians the whereabouts of the main opposition leader is unknown the protesters want the prime minister sara sarcastic and to resign big to use him of trying to stay in power in debt. in italy and failing to tackle corruption.

well for the latest on the protests in armenia we're joined now by joshua cherry he's a freelance journalist in your oven so joshua the situation appears to be escalating further what more can you tell us. yeah so today. as you said in your introduction there is a group of about two hundred soldiers that was seen joining the protesters this caused quite a stir among the protesters people have been looking for any sign of kind of government defection to the opposition the army is held here in extremely high regard and so having any sign of. the military support for this protest movement is extremely important. all right so does seem to be taking it to the next level with members of the military getting involved what's the government's

reaction been so far to this. well specifically on the soldiers they have issued a statement you know acknowledging that yes we recognize real soldiers and that they will be harshly punished in general they may have very few options i mean they . did there's a general feeling here that they can't crack down harshly on the protesters the government has very little genesee and genesee would be gone if they were violent against the protesters they try. to kind of behead the movement yesterday by. arresting the protest leaders and that came after. a sort of failed negotiation between the prime minister is a man that they're all trying to get to resign and to protest leader. the protests the president prime minister rather left those negotiations after only three minutes saying i'm not going to be involved in this kind of blackmail because the

protest leader is demanding that he step down before any negotiations can continue this is a little disingenuous because that's been the demand all along from the protest leaders so it appeared to look like the government was trying to pretend like they're trying to negotiate in this as well they're not used to negotiating so we're going to arrest them i think that's backfired all right so the main demand by demonstrators is that the prime minister resigns can you explain to us why the people are demanding this and why these demonstrations are so angry. so the this is the man in question here sort of starts the on he's been the president for ten years and now they've switched to a different kind of government from a presidential system to a parliamentary system where now the prime minister is the most important figure and so it's kind of been long expected that that when they switch to the system

that starts you know one would become the prime minister but when it formally happened two weeks ago it was formally announced that something seemed to snap in people and you know there's a kind of resentment that's been built you know building up sort of blew up when that happened and he's just been very unpopular that the government is. autocratic rhotic its economy here is terrible. fought a war a brief war with. two years ago that ended badly for armenia and so people are dissatisfied on that front and so there's been a lot of things building up and that sort of move where he became prime minister after being president that seemed to sort of set people off. all right well with the government apparently i'm willing to negotiate with the opposition what could happen next. i mean nobody knows there was an announcement today that the deputy

prime minister who is probably the most popular figure in the ruling party did say that he's going to meet with nicole question you know their protest leader it's not clear exactly what his agenda with that is and he's going to recommend it in the or arrest warrant being withdrawn so that's an interesting development and i don't know nobody knows yet what that means. for the government has done doesn't have very many options if they you know if they make some concessions you know people here are really energized and the energy keeps going up and up and up among the protesters so it's very hard to say what can happen all right josh i can share reporting i am yet many thanks for that update a court in belgium has found terrorism suspects are lobbed islam guilty of attempted murder for firing shots at police while trying to evade arrest two years ago i'm just is the sole surviving suspect in the twenty fifteen terror attacks in

paris the incident for which he was convicted today relates to the time after the paris attack but before his arrest when he was hiding out in brussels the court handed down the maximum sentence of twenty hears in prison let's go straight to the courthouse in brussels where did you correspondent teri schultz is standing by so terry take us through what was said in court today. the judge had an eighty eight page verdict which she read out and important in this was to establish that this was a terrorist crime he was convicted of attempted terrorist murder so the judge went through items like finding islamic state propaganda in the safe house where the shootout took place she also talked about the amount of support that cell of this lawman sophia and i really had written had received from the terror cell that was known to have been operating in belgium at the time the one that committed the

paris attacks and the brussels attacks later so that component was proven through these details she also seemed to cast doubt on the defense's claims that this lawn was stupid and also that he had no intention to commit murder she said the number of heavy weapons found at the scene the amount of ammunition proved whether or not sell of the slum actually pulled the trigger on the day of the shootout he had every intention and capability to kill these police officers and any other law enforcement personnel that got in his way. aren't terry let's now give our viewers a closer look at up to slam and the circumstances of his capture we have this report. at the end of an international manhunt on march eighteenth twenty sixteen belgian special police captured one of the most wanted terrorist suspects in europe up to slow believed to be the only surviving suspect in the paris terror attacks that left one hundred thirty people dead in

november twenty fifth up to saddam as a french citizen born in brussels in september one thousand nine hundred nine it's not yet clear whether he played a major part in planning and executing the pirates attacks but was merely a low level follower. after four months on the run up the slum was arrested in march twenty sixth dean following a ten court. his lawyer mary describes him as a small time criminal who's too stupid to plan a conspiracy in one interview he said up to salon has quote the intelligence of an empty ashtray drawer wrapped islam's family has also tried to reinforce this line of defense one of his brothers for instance says up to slam lost his nerve and intentionally failed to set off a suicide bomb vest he was wearing. but it's only at the much bigger trial set to take place in france at a later date the prosecutors will judge up to slums role in the paris attacks themselves. are it's important to differentiate today's proceedings are not related

to the paris attacks in two thousand and fifteen terry what more did we learn though about obviously during the course of this trial. if this is to be seen as a test case while not related for the paris paris trial that's upcoming it certainly doesn't bode well for salo obviously his attorney as we heard tried to portray him as too stupid to have planned these attacks not to have even the intention to commit such attacks but in fact some of the islam has given given prosecutors in the next trial a lot to work with because on the first day of this trial though he wasn't expected to speak he had an outburst at the end was told us a lot about him he said he doesn't recognize the mandate of the court that he doesn't trust anything that this judge might say he said that muslims are persecuted no matter what that they're always guilty before even having a trial and he said he puts his faith in all as hands and in fact he was very

articulate when he had this outburst which may have made his his defense attorney quite nervous in trying to portray him as stupid and obviously never came back to court after that and we don't actually know whether it was he who didn't want to come or his attorneys who thought it was best that he keep his mouth shut so again while as we've said this verdict does not play a role in the paris trial it certainly has given us some more insight into the suspect and terry what happens now. he's being held in a maximum security prison as he has in fact throughout this trial he was transported for that first day of the trial in a heavily armed motorcade just for this appearance so he remains in that prison until his trial begins in paris it's not known yet whether he will appear in person there and of course this twenty year sentence may never come to pass here in belgium there the the trial in paris will obviously be much bigger the conclusions

will be much more. dependent is theirs will be much more dependent on what happens in that trial i spoke with a court official here about whether this twenty year sentence will ever mean anything and he said if it's possible that obviously gets out of prison in paris if he's convicted perhaps belgium can still call him back to serve twenty years here none the less having this trial having this outcome was important in belgium which of course has come under a huge group me for having hosted the terror cell that committed the paris attacks and the brussels attacks later all right terry shoals reporting from brussels many thanks indeed south korea has switched off giant loudspeakers used to broadcast propaganda at its border with north korea seoul says it's a gesture of goodwill ahead of a summit between the two countries do this friday broadcasts usually include pop music news and calls on north korean soldiers to defect to the south.

these south korean weapons can reach several kilometers into north korean territory . high decibel propaganda speakers line the demilitarized zone between the two countries blasting the isolated north with pop music and news broadcasts. but now they are switched off as the two sides prepare to meet for the first time in over a decade the south korean government aims to send a strong message through silence you wanted to go we hope this decision will lead both koreas to stop mutual criticism and propaganda against each other and also contribute to creating peace and a new beginning. both sides use propaganda speakers and while the north has not said it will silence its own recently announced a halt to nuclear missile testing. divided for seventy years the two koreas marched under united flag at this year's winter olympic games the thawing of relations has

opened a diplomatic window for talks which are expected to begin next week i. koreans however have mixed views about how effective the upcoming summit will be even when you go to the magic crises a so frequent of become numb to them. i was told that suddenly there's a peace made but i don't know about that and you couldn't couldn't all. the north korean defectors hope the day of unification will come soon so that they can go home to see their loved ones. they can get it up with. the u.k.'s or us president donald trump also plans to meet with north korea's kim jong un next month to discuss nuclear disarmament for now the conflict is not over it's on standby. you're watching d.w. news coming up mexico and the e.u. agreed to overhaul their trade agreement and stand up for international free trade

chris of color will have that and more in your business round up coming up in just a minute american evanston thanks for watching. the. earth go home for saving global india's tells stories of creative people and innovative projects around the world ideas the protect the climate and boost green energy solutions by global owing to his being by a series of global three thousand on d w and online. time for an upgrade. hundred sure that grows all by.