According to the information of the Armenian National Congress, soon president Serzh Sargsyan will sign an order to grant amnesty to over 30 political prisoners based on their applications. Yesterday Armen Khachatryan, the coordinator of the Armenian National Congress center for legal assistance, said the following: “None of the 30 people is included in the list of political prisoners. Such people are definitely charged under articles of robbery. There are also people among them, who were not subjected to compulsory punishment by the court and were conditionally released.” Mr. Khachatryan says that this decision is connected with the issue of Armenia to be discussed at the upcoming PACE session on January 27. “The authorities want to present it as an actual step to improve the situation before the PACE session, but we say that none of such people is included in the list of political prisoners in Armenia and this act does not change the number of political prisoners,” he said and pledged that before the PACE session all the European institutions will be informed about the fact that the Armenian government is doing one more provocation. President’s spokesperson Samvel Pharmanyan neither approved nor refuted the mentioned information in media. He only said that the president’s office had received several dozens of letters from people arrested as a result of March 1 events asking to grant them amnesty, which are to be discussed by the commission of in charge of granting amnesty at the president’s office.
