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KEY PARLIAMENT COMMITTEE GIVES POSITIVE CONCLUSION ON GENERAL AMNESTY PROPOSAL
Human rights | 01.10.13 | 13:44
Photolure
The parliament committee on state and legal issues has given a positive
conclusion to the bill on general amnesty proposed by President Serzh
Sargsyan after holding a closed-door meeting on Tuesday.
Justice Minister Hrair Tovmasyan told media after the meeting that
this year's general amnesty may extend to even more people than the
one declared in 2011.
The minister stopped short of naming names, saying that the essence
of the general amnesty is that it involves criminal code articles,
deeds, other related circumstances, but did not rule out that the
bill may also extend to opposition youth Tigran Arakelyan, who was
convicted of assaulting a police officer and has served more than
two years of his six-year prison term.
The Armenian opposition considers Arakelyan and three other activists
convicted in a related case to be political prisoners, while the
government has denied any presence of people imprisoned for their
political views in Armenia either today or in the past.
In any case, the opposition Armenian National Congress has hailed
the possible release of Arakelyan under the amnesty bill, which is
expected to win approval from the full parliament as well.
Justice Minister Tovmasyan explained: "A general amnesty implies that
part of convicts will be released immediately, the sentences of others
will be reduced; there are also articles to which this amnesty will
not apply at all. The 2011 amnesty applied to more than 1,200 prison
inmates, this year it will be a little more, as the number of articles
that are not under restriction has been increased."
http://armenianow.com/society/human_rights/48851/armenia_general_amnesty_hrair_tovmasyan
Human rights | 01.10.13 | 13:44
Photolure
The parliament committee on state and legal issues has given a positive
conclusion to the bill on general amnesty proposed by President Serzh
Sargsyan after holding a closed-door meeting on Tuesday.
Justice Minister Hrair Tovmasyan told media after the meeting that
this year's general amnesty may extend to even more people than the
one declared in 2011.
The minister stopped short of naming names, saying that the essence
of the general amnesty is that it involves criminal code articles,
deeds, other related circumstances, but did not rule out that the
bill may also extend to opposition youth Tigran Arakelyan, who was
convicted of assaulting a police officer and has served more than
two years of his six-year prison term.
The Armenian opposition considers Arakelyan and three other activists
convicted in a related case to be political prisoners, while the
government has denied any presence of people imprisoned for their
political views in Armenia either today or in the past.
In any case, the opposition Armenian National Congress has hailed
the possible release of Arakelyan under the amnesty bill, which is
expected to win approval from the full parliament as well.
Justice Minister Tovmasyan explained: "A general amnesty implies that
part of convicts will be released immediately, the sentences of others
will be reduced; there are also articles to which this amnesty will
not apply at all. The 2011 amnesty applied to more than 1,200 prison
inmates, this year it will be a little more, as the number of articles
that are not under restriction has been increased."
http://armenianow.com/society/human_rights/48851/armenia_general_amnesty_hrair_tovmasyan