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OPPOSITION MEMBERS TO BE RELEASED AMONG HUNDREDS OF OTHER PRISONERS UNDER ARMENIAN AMNESTY
http://www.armenianow.com/news/29925/armenia_amnesty_2011
26.05.11 | 08:42
A general amnesty in Armenia is going to cover about 800 convicted
prisoners or people serving suspended jail sentences, including several
key opposition members imprisoned following politically charged trials,
it emerged on Wednesday.
Late last week President Serzh Sargsyan asked lawmakers to consider
such a move, timing it to the 20th anniversary of the declaration of
Armenia's independence to be marked in September.
The amnesty is to cover people who committed crimes before May 1, 2011.
According to preliminary estimations presented by Justice Minster
Hrair Tovmasyan, 400 people will be fully relieved from further
serving out their sentences and about 400 people will see their
remaining time in jail cut.
Addressing his colleagues on Wednesday, Parliament Speaker Hovik
Abrahamyan described the current amnesty as "an expected and quite
justified step."
"This is the ninth amnesty in the history of independent Armenia;
however it will be unprecedented as to the nature of its application
and the frames of impact and will have both humanistic and political
importance," he said.
On Thursday, the National Assembly approved the general amnesty
resolution by a vote of 91 to none, with only one abstention.
Unlike the 2009 amnesty, the current act does not contain a separate
provision concerning oppositionists who were convicted and jailed in
connection with their roles in the 2008 post-election clashes.
By force of its other provisions, however, the amnesty is likely
to cover several opposition members, including former lawmaker and
Karabakh war veteran Sasun Mikayelyan and editor-in-chief of the
Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper Nikol Pashinyan, both of whom were jailed
in connection with the March 1, 2008 events.
The latest move by the Sargsyan administration effectively amounts to
the authorities' full compliance with the main opposition alliance's
three major demands for "a political dialogue" to begin.
The other two demands set forth by the Armenian National Congress and
its leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan earlier this spring concerned a fresh
probe into the deadly suppression of opposition street protests in
2008 and the removal of a de-facto ban on holding political gatherings
in Yerevan's Liberty Square.
Speaking at the latest rally in Yerevan on April 28, Ter-Petrosyan said
the door for a political dialogue with the authorities was 'half-open'
and urged the government to release all of his loyalists remaining
in prison before May 31 - the date of the next scheduled rally -
for such a dialogue to start.
From: Baghdasarian
http://www.armenianow.com/news/29925/armenia_amnesty_2011
26.05.11 | 08:42
A general amnesty in Armenia is going to cover about 800 convicted
prisoners or people serving suspended jail sentences, including several
key opposition members imprisoned following politically charged trials,
it emerged on Wednesday.
Late last week President Serzh Sargsyan asked lawmakers to consider
such a move, timing it to the 20th anniversary of the declaration of
Armenia's independence to be marked in September.
The amnesty is to cover people who committed crimes before May 1, 2011.
According to preliminary estimations presented by Justice Minster
Hrair Tovmasyan, 400 people will be fully relieved from further
serving out their sentences and about 400 people will see their
remaining time in jail cut.
Addressing his colleagues on Wednesday, Parliament Speaker Hovik
Abrahamyan described the current amnesty as "an expected and quite
justified step."
"This is the ninth amnesty in the history of independent Armenia;
however it will be unprecedented as to the nature of its application
and the frames of impact and will have both humanistic and political
importance," he said.
On Thursday, the National Assembly approved the general amnesty
resolution by a vote of 91 to none, with only one abstention.
Unlike the 2009 amnesty, the current act does not contain a separate
provision concerning oppositionists who were convicted and jailed in
connection with their roles in the 2008 post-election clashes.
By force of its other provisions, however, the amnesty is likely
to cover several opposition members, including former lawmaker and
Karabakh war veteran Sasun Mikayelyan and editor-in-chief of the
Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper Nikol Pashinyan, both of whom were jailed
in connection with the March 1, 2008 events.
The latest move by the Sargsyan administration effectively amounts to
the authorities' full compliance with the main opposition alliance's
three major demands for "a political dialogue" to begin.
The other two demands set forth by the Armenian National Congress and
its leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan earlier this spring concerned a fresh
probe into the deadly suppression of opposition street protests in
2008 and the removal of a de-facto ban on holding political gatherings
in Yerevan's Liberty Square.
Speaking at the latest rally in Yerevan on April 28, Ter-Petrosyan said
the door for a political dialogue with the authorities was 'half-open'
and urged the government to release all of his loyalists remaining
in prison before May 31 - the date of the next scheduled rally -
for such a dialogue to start.
From: Baghdasarian