Last Friday, January 23 President Serzh Sargsyan signed a decree on pardoning 16 more individuals arrested and convicted in connection with last year’s post-election violence in Yerevan, but the Armenian opposition insisted that only two of them are its supporters. The presidential press service said all of these individuals had appealed to Sargsyan for an amnesty. It said the presidential decree signed on Saturday also took into account their lack of prior criminal records as well as health conditions and family circumstances. The Armenian National Congress (ANC) has released a statement which holds: “The regime uses its entire arsenal of tricks ranging from preposterous letters to shameless fraud to avoid the demand to immediately release the political prisoners and not to lose the voting right at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. According to the ANC release only 2 out of the 16 people are included in their list of political detainees – Vardges Gasparyan and Tigran Hakobyan. Last year the court decided not to apply any sanctions against 6 of them – Ashot Gyurjyan, Aghvan Grigoryan, Mesrop Zakaryan, Vahagn Hareyan, Mkrtich Armenakyan and Rafael Galyan. Moreover, the latter was a member of the Prosperous Armenia party. 13 out of the 14 detainees were accused based on Articles 176 and 177 of the RA Criminal Code – burglary and theft. Two of them Yurik Ghukasyan and Armen Grigoryan last year confessed that they had been the proxies of Serzh Sargsyan during last year’s presidential elections. There have been numerous publications in the media about the mentioned two people, which prove that the mentioned two people were provocateurs sent from Sargsyan’s campaign office. “The decree is a collection of lies,” the ANC charged in a statement, saying that only two of the pardoned men, Vardan Gasparyan and Tigran Hakobyan, had been on the opposition list of some 60 “political prisoners.” The ANC said the 14 other individuals have no links to the opposition and that all but one of them had been arrested for looting shops during the March 1 clashes between security forces and opposition protesters demanding a re-run of the February 2008 presidential election. At least six of them received suspended prison sentences, added the statement. According to the coordinator of the legal support center of political detainees Armen Khachatryan of the other “pardoned” 14 people at least six had been put on a conditional sentence; 13 had been charged with theft; two of the 14 had confessed at court that they were Serzh Sargsyan’s proxies. One was a member of the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), and ten, still unknown to us, were members of a gang sent by the regime for looting and provocation, and had nothing to do with the demonstrators. “We have learned that another group of people will be granted “pardon” before the PACE suspends Armenia’s voting right. The number of the so-called “pardoned” will be publicized during the PACE session at the last moment to influence over the parliamentarians. Serzh Sargsyan has invented and played the trick in such a short period of time only for one purpose – for the PACE delegates and officials to have no time and possibility to check the reality about the numbers tossed to them,” he said. The HAK statement said the presidential decree is aimed at “influencing” PACE members. “The resolutions demand the release of political prisoners, whereas the authorities release criminal elements,” Armen Khachatryan said. Despite the PACE threats of sanctions, Sargsyan has refused to call a general amnesty for all oppositionists remaining in prison. The Armenian president so far been willing to pardon only those detainees that have confessed to controversial accusations leveled against them. Article 70 of the RA Criminal Code clearly mentions, “If the court determines that the crime of the culprit is not that serious and that he/she can become a better citizen without carrying on the sanction he/she may be released on parole. Under these circumstances the president granted amnesty to people, who were not supposed to be sentenced. This is some focus, a trick,” says Khachatryan. The latter focuses on the evidence brought up by the detainees when they were constrained to write amnesty petitions. “They were convinced that you are under probe and if they commit a crime in future the previous sentence will be added to the new one. It means they are granting amnesty for the crime that may be committed in future,” says Khachatryan. The court procedure of 6 people charged based on the March 1 case proceeded in a quite quick manner. At that time the opposition again claimed that the government cut deals with the arrested oppositionists. A little later it turned out that many of these people didn’t have anything in common with the movement. “Accept your guilt and you will receive paroles in an immediate manner. That’s what these people were told,” says Khachatryan. According to our interviewee only one of the 14 detainees Mesrop Zakaryan had connection with the movement. Others were shop-lifters and Serzh Sargsyan’s proxies. “During the past month everything is done to get amnesty petition letters from the political detainees so that a record is registered to show to the PACE officials. Besides that Serzh Sargsyan decided to try another trick or focus. He signed a decree on January 23 to release 16 detainees. That decree is a collection of forgery. None of the entities of the list has any connection with weapon and arms, which reads Sargsyan’s decree,” reads the ANC statement. Let’s add that the ANC also has information that Sargsyan will grant amnesty to another similar list of detainees before the PACE final voting.
