COMMITTEE FOR PROTECTION OF POLITICAL PRISONERS AND PERSECUTED PEOPLE CREATED
NOYAN TAPAN
Ju ly 9
According to human rights activist Vardan Haroutiunian, the
Armenian authorities have fulfilled only one of the provisions of
PACE Resolution N 1609, at that, only formally. That provision,
as V. Haroutiunian said at the July 9 discussion, is the National
Assembly ad hoc commission created for the purpose of investigation
of the March 1 events. The members of that commission, according to
the human rights activist, depend on the authorities and therefore,
cannot carry out fair and unbiassed investigation. "So far, none
of the commission members has demanded releasing even if one of the
political prisoners with a signature at the preliminary examination
stage," he said.
V. Haroutiunian said that a signature on not leaving the place of
their residence has been chosen as restraint to 25 people on the
March 1 case, 3 people have been acquitted, and today 82 people are
in custody. According to the human rights activist, when the Press
Service of the Prosecutor General’s Office reports that there are
17 prisoners in prisons on the above mentioned case, it means that
the Prosecutor’s Office means only those whose sentence has not been
pronounced yet. While, according to the human rights activist, the
others, convicts, remain political prisoners.
Karapet Rubinian, a representative of the National Movement (NM),
said that a Committee for Protection of Political Prisoners and
Persecuted People has been created lately. One of its primary goals
is to provide financial assistance to families of imprisoned people.