NO POLITICAL PERSECUTION?

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31 March, 2008

On March 31 the Ago group of monitoring of the CoE Committee of
Ministers met with the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia.

The delegation brought up the following issues: 1) the grounds for
the ban on visits of family to arrested or detained persons; 2) the
possibility of releasing people arrested or detained in connection
with the mass disorders on March 1; 3) the justification of the
recent amendments to the RA law on meetings, rallies, marches and
demonstrations; 4) the possibility of an impartial and transparent
investigation of the mass disorders of March 1 and statements on
further investigation, 5) the necessity for the government to start
a dialogue with the opposition political forces without preconditions.

There were also questions on the amount, type and usage of weapons that
were found. The ministry of justice explained that the legal ground for
visits of families are set down in Article 15 of the RA law on detained
and arrested people, according to which only the body investigating
the case can ban visits. At the same time, it was informed that such a
decision has been made in a limited number of cases. In addition, this
ban does not affect the human rights defender and can be reconsidered.

The spokesman of the minister of justice reports that the Committee of
Venice extended a conclusion on the amendments to the law on meetings,
rallies, marches and demonstrations, and the minister of justice said
willing to discuss it thoroughly. It was noted that the law does not
contain any provision which is not known to the legislations of the
EU members. Moreover, according to the spokesman, relatively milder
restrictions on freedom of peaceful rallies have been selected than
those of the national legislations of those countries.

With regard to a dialogue, the group was informed that that the
president elect Mr. Serzh Sarkissian has made a number of distinct
official statements to which some opposition forces have already
responded. Even though some opposition political forces reject a
political dialogue, deny that the international observation mission was
unbiased and display lack of confidence in any force which does not
share their ideas, the government is ready for a political dialogue
without reservations, the spokesman for the RA minister of justice
reports.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress