Committee for Support of Military and Political Prisoners concerned over repeated human rights violations in Armenia
"According to various NGOs, to date, there are 109 political prisoners in Armenian jails."
On January 21, an open letter from the Committee for Support of Military and Political Prisoners in Armenia was published in the French Internet publication "Nouvelles d'Arménie" (News from Armenia), timed to the official visit of Serzh Sargsyan to Paris on January 22 - 23. The letter is addressed to all those politicians and diplomats with whom the President of Armenia met during his visit, that is, the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, the President of the Senate Gerard Larscher, the President of the National Assembly François de Rouge, the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, the representatives of the Parliamentary Friendship Group France-Armenia, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, the President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Guido Raimondi, the Secretary-General of Venice Commission of Council of Europe Co-Chairman Gianni Buquicchio, Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
In his letter, the representative of the Committee for Support of Military and Political Prisoners in Armenia expresses his gravest concern over the repeated violations of human rights in Armenia, which have become systemic. Below is a translated and slightly abbreviated version of the letter:
"As an heir of the Soviet past with the only active political party Armenia has never been able to accept the existence of a real opposition. Any disagreement here is viewed as dissent, is prosecuted by the law and is severely punished, which in fact is a violation of freedom of speech and opinion.
"The situation with the appearance of numerous lawsuits against the authorities is very uncommon for a young republic with barely three million people (at least six trials have been initiated in Armenia since 2016).
"Suppression of democracy and freedom of expression, the uprising of July 17, 2016 and the capture of the police station in Yerevan by the radical armed group Sasna Tsrer (Sasun's heirs, the name of the grouping originates from the medieval Armenian epic David Sasunsky, narrating about the struggle of the heroes from Sasun against the Arab invaders) led to large-scale mass support. The members of the grouping said that they had to resort to such radical actions, because Serzh Sargsyan came and still remains in power thanks to two rigged elections of 2008 and 2013, and also because this man actually controls the executive, legislative and judicial power. Amendments to the Armenian Constitution in December 2015 will allow him to run the country as prime minister from 2018 without time limit.
"Huge repressions and protesters’ arrests were launched in the country allegedly to neutralize the group members, while political participants in the uprising were judged with the same rigor as the armed. The defendants were beaten in the courthouse, and their lawyers were subjected to numerous pressures, such as an illegal search at the entrance to the court, not to mention the threats to the families and relatives of the accused.
"In spite of EU’s Action Plan on Justice for the modernization of the Armenian system and the formation of 250 international courts, the trials do not reveal progress in protecting the basic elementary rights of citizens. The Council of Europe regularly monitors and audits the use of its grants for the reform of the judicial system (the Justice Action Plan) and the implementation of commitments. Why is the new Armenian criminal code, developed since 2012 jointly with European experts, which provides for a reduction in the terms of preventive detention of citizens, has not yet been submitted to the Parliament of the Republic of Armenia in 2018?
"According to various NGOs, to date, there are 109 political prisoners in Armenian jails. And this list is far from complete."
News.Az
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