While the PACE co-rapporteurs John Prescott and George Colombier would visit Armenia, the authorities had got used to the possibility of losing the voting right at the PACE. However, after the one-day visit of the mentioned European officials the government officials seem to be happy. According to our sources of information, the authorities could persuade them.
The PACE officials mainly discussed the issue of political prisoners with the Armenian government, specifically the issue of the Case of Seven prisoners and essence of amending Article 300 (usurpation of state power). As the co-rapporteurs referred to the mentioned law provision for several times and said that the purpose of the mentioned law is political persecution, an official (according to different sources of information, either general prosecutor Aghvan Hovseptyan or the head of the Armenian delegation to PACE Davit Harutyunyan) suggested to amend the law. The same sources of information say that if the Armenian government undertakes such steps targeted at amending the mentioned law before the PACE session due to on January 27 Armenia may prevent punishments. The logic of such amendment is that after amending the law the political prisoners may be set free. In other words, the government officials are happy and hope that if during the coming ten days they amend the criminal code, Prescott and Colombier will use this fact to convince the PACE delegates not to deprive Armenia of the right to vote. The government is so inspired by this hope that yesterday the parliamentary commission on state and legal affairs (headed by Davit Harutyunyan) organized a discussion on establishing an ad hoc commission to amend the mentioned law.
In fact the head of the NA temporary commission in charge of investigating the events of March 1, Samvel Nikoyan affirmed that information. The latter has met with Prescott and Colombier as well. “They spoke of Article 300. I told them that I could speak of that issue as a legislator. This law exists and is in force in Armenia. I said that the mentioned law is in force but our commission would refer to that issue and law in its report. I said that we would work with experts and develop a recommendation to the parliament to amend the law in a manner which would allow not to mix the political and legal components. I mean that I told them that our commission had discussed that issue because we had been told by the parliament to develop such recommendations which would exclude repetition of such possibilities in the future. I think that such recommendation will be good. Anyway this article should be clearly formatted no to mix the political and criminal components,” said Samvel Nikoyan. In answer to our question what the suggestions specifically were, whether they suggested to establish an ad hoc commission or adopt the law amendments in that period, Samvel Nikoyan said, “There were no such suggestions during the meeting with me.” In answer to our question whether he thinks that Armenia may be deprived of the voting right the latter said, “Tell you frankly I did not try to understand what they were going to do. Tell you frankly when people ask me what I will tell them to convince them to make a positive report and not to deprive Armenia of the voting right I say nothing and I say that I will not do anything. I told them about the work of the commission; what the successes and failures of the commission are. I told about the difficulties in investigating the conditions stimulating the death of people.”
All the political prisoners charged under the Case of Seven are accused according to the provisions of Article 300. As the co-rapporteurs are mainly interested in the future of the mentioned seven political prisoners, it is possible that after such amendment they may be released. Of course it is suspicious because if the government wanted to set them free it could grant amnesty to them. It is not excluded that this story of legal amendment is another trick to cheat the Europeans.
Generally the discussions and rumors following the visits of the European officials were full of suspicions. Our sources from the government say that during the meeting with the general prosecutor the latter asked the co-rapporteurs whether they were informed of the details of the Case of Seven. The co-rapporteurs said that they were not informed of the details of the case and said that it was enough for them to be see the documents shown to them by the opposition in order to have an imagination of the details. It became clear during our conversation with Samvel Nikoyan as well, specifically he said the following: “If after getting familiar with the details of the case they found that the seven accused could be considered political prisoners, I would show a great respect to them and their professionalism. I mean that if they got familiar with the details and then came to such conclusions. However, it is unacceptable when they are coming to conclusions as delegates only, without reading a page. First of all it affects our prisoners they worry about, and generally the inner stability of the country.”
P.S. The PACE office in Armenia has re-affirmed that Armenia’s issue will be discussed on January 27. It was scheduled for January 28 evening, but in consideration of the fact that the issue is important the PACE Monitoring Commission organized a special session, which decided to discuss Armenia’s issue on January 27.