There are rumors that the top authorities have decided to find solutions to release the political prisoners. For this purpose the government is going to send a package of amendments to the RA Criminal Code to the parliament to ease some punishments in the law. According to our information from the parliament, these amendments will also concern the articles which were used to charge the political prisoners. During a conversation with us the RPA MP Rafik Petrosyan said that as a result of this law amendment about 1000 prisoners may be set free. However he did not say whether political prisoners would be among them or no. The head of the NA standing committee on state and legal affairs Davit Harutyunyan approved the information that there is such draft under discussion. It is possible that this draft law may be sent to the parliament next week. In fact the government now has to do something due to a number of reasons (such as pressure on the government, the upcoming discussions in the PACE concerning the term “political prisoner”, the upcoming elections, etc.), which they should have done two years ago and the country would not be in such a poor situation. However, the release of all the political prisoners can ease the political tension to some extent, which was originated after the elections of 2008. No country can ever claim for development if they have at least more than a dozen political prisoners in cells.
