Finally yesterday President Serzh Sargsyan formally asked the Armenian parliament to declare a general amnesty, a move which is expected to lead to the release of all Armenian opposition members remaining in prison.
Based on Article 81 (Part 1) of the Armenian Constitution and Article 90 of the NA Regulations, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has applied to the National Assembly with a proposal to announce amnesty on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Armenia’s independence, the President’s press service reports. Four political prisoners still remain in jail in connection with the March 1 events. Those are Sasun Mikaelyan, Nicol Pashinyan, Shmavon Galstyan and Ara Hovhannisyan. Yesterday after 4p.m. the National Assembly Committee of State and Legal Affairs discussed Serzh Sargsyan’s proposal on amnesty. The chairman of the committee Davit Harutyunyan told reporters that the committee approved the proposal and has submitted comments to the minister of justice. Davit Harutyunyan extended hope that the National Assembly will already discuss the proposal on amnesty next week. He also said the discussion and the draft are confidential. Harutyunyan has prepared and submitted several recommendations to the RA president. Sargsyan may or may not admit those. At any rate, it is not excluded that the amnesty bill may be discussed by the NA big session on Monday. Afterwards, the NA will prepare and submit a suggestion for amnesty. According to the NA bylaw the NA chairman signs and submits the decision of the NA on amnesty within 24 hours after the discussion. It is not excluded that the authorities of Armenia will organize the amnesty the way that it would be signed on Monday. And it’s once again up to the government to decide when the 4 political prisoners will be released before or after the May 31 rally. Both of the options are not excluded. The government may stretch the time or it may overcome the “evil” and release them by the end of May. At any rate the political decision is made and Armenia will no more have any political prisoners. And even yesterday the government wouldn’t publicly accept that all that is done to release the political prisoners of March 1. RPA deputy-chair Galust Sahakyan stated that certain people were attempting to connect the amnesty with this or other case or political agenda. “But the amnesty is connected with the 20th anniversary of Armenia’s independence. So the amnesty if fully natural in this regard,” said Sahakyan. The latter yesterday didn’t admit that the people, who were sentenced in the aftermath of March 1 were political prisoners after staying in prison for over 3 years now. “There is no personification here but we are hopeful that it will also affect all the prisoners including the ones imprisoned in the aftermath of tragic events of March 1,” added Sahakyan. Before the confidential session of the Legal Affairs Committee of NA, MP Victor Dallakyan expressed an opinion that on the occasion of the 2oth anniversary of independence this amnesty will be unprecedented. “Taking into account the allegations of the opposition-government relations of the recent period I assume that this amnesty will also include people sentenced in the aftermath of March 1,” added the MP. Yesterday no one mentioned how many prisoners this amnesty will include. But according to political rumors this amnesty is really unprecedented because it will include about 2000 prisoners and only 500 of those will be released. As of the others their sentence will be reduced. The National Assembly, which is dominated by government loyalists, already declared an amnesty two years ago, resulting in the liberation of hundreds of convicts. Among them were several dozen allies and supporters of opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian who were controversially imprisoned following the 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan. Six other Armenian oppositionists are still behind bars. Sarkisian hinted at their impending release as he made a number of concessions to Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress late last month. Those concessions included the lifting of a de facto government ban on opposition rallies in a key Yerevan square and a renewed investigation into the March 2008 deadly clashes between security forces and Ter-Petrosian supporters demanding the rerun of a disputed presidential election. According to unofficial data, over 4000 people are currently in Armenian prisons. Let us remember that another amnesty on June 19, 2009 was declared on the events of March 1, during which 320 prisoners were released, including 50 political prisoners. After that there were 20 more left in prisons and during the past 2 years the authorities were quite sluggishly and one by one releasing the political prisoners. And Sasun Mikaelyan, who is imprisoned for 8 years based on Article 225 and 235 of the penal code. N. Pashinyan was sentenced to 3 years and 10 month imprisonment based on Article 225 of the penal code. A. Hovhannisyan was sentenced to 9 years in prison based on the same articles. And for S. Galstyan 6,5 year sentence was instituted. Let us also recall that after presidential elections 2008 numerous international structures have accused Armenia for having political prisoners in the country. Because of not abiding with their demands to release political prisoners the international structures have imposed financial and moral damages for our country. And especially during the past several months the demands of international structures were unprecedented. Almost every week a European high-rank official or structure would voice these demands to our authorities. Every official, who visits Armenia raises this matter and discuss the consequences with the Armenian opposition. After the events of 2008 after three years and three months a decision is made to release the last political prisoners. “In general amnesties are political steps and this is even more highlighted here because it is aimed at releasing the political prisoners. This should have been done during the first amnesty and all the March 1 prisoners were supposed to be released. And now only in a year they decided to release them all. If we had done this before we wouldn’t go through less and would have a better situation in the country,” says a Dashnak MP Armen Rustamyan. Let us also add that the release of the political prisoners has been the main demand of the Armenian opposition. And during the recent months it was one of the three key demands of the ANC. ANC leaders have always announced that they will go in the dialog with the government only when their friends are released from prisons. And on April 28 rally the leader of ANC Levon Ter-Petrosyan expressed his conviction that by May 31 the rest of the political prisoners will be released. Yesterday the ANC didn’t wish to comment on the decision of the amnesty of the president. “We carefully follow the process and when we have sufficient information on the inclusion of the amnesty we will speak about that,” said Ter-Petrosyan’s press officer Arman Musinyan. He also expressed his confidence that the “processes in the country inspire with confidence that by the end of this month all the political prisoners will be released.”