As it was expected yesterday morning political prisoners Alexander Arzumanyan, Sirun Surenyan, Myasnik Malkhasyan and Hakob Hakobyan were released from the court room. Naturally, the judges didn’t regret over the weekend and didn’t make verdicts to vindicate the innocent prisoners. They were found guilty of organizing the deadly post-election violence in the capital and sentenced to five years in prison. Suren Sirunyan, another opposition activist who was tried together with Arzumanyan, got a four-year prison sentence on the same charge. Court judges ruled that all four men qualify for the amnesty and ordered their release. The orders prompted rapturous applause and cheers from dozens of opposition supporters that packed the courtrooms. These people were released based on the amnesty June 19. Yesterday the Kotayk marz general instance court convicted an NA MP, former war participant Sasoun Michaelyan to an 8-year of experience. The court made such sensational verdicts on these people that one hardly ever would imagine if some bodyguard of an oligarch would be sentenced to if he killed an innocent person. But in this case the problem is not with the behavior of the government. They have numerously proven their presumptuous behavior at various occasions. And this regard nothing special happened yesterday. The amnesty, which will affect a total of about 2,000 persons serving prison sentences for various crimes, is widely linked with this week’s session of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE). The Strasbourg-based body is scheduled to again discuss on Wednesday Armenia’s compliance with its resolutions demanding the immediate release of all opposition members arrested on “seemingly artificial or politically motivated” charges. It has previously threatened to impose sanctions against Yerevan. It was quite surprising that yesterday the first president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan wasn’t among the gathered people in front of Shengavit court. Because finally Alexander Arzumanyan, who was released yesterday, is not only the former foreign affairs minister of Armenia but also the head of Ter-Petrosyan’s election campaign office of 2008.
