ARMENIA VOTES TO AMNESTY OPPOSITION ACTIVISTS
Reuters
June 19 2009
UK
YEREVAN, June 19 (Reuters) – Armenia’s parliament passed an amnesty
on Friday that the government said would cover 90 percent of those
charged over violent clashes with police in March last year.
President Serzh Sarksyan and his government had been heavily criticised
by rights groups for the crackdown that followed the deadly clashes,
when the opposition took to the streets to protest Sarksyan’s victory
in presidential elections.
Ten people, including two police officers, died in the violence. Some
100 people were convicted on charges stemming from the unrest, and
more than 50 received jail terms.
"The amnesty will promote the resolution of very important issues,
ease tensions in society and create the basis for cooperation," said
ruling party official David Harutyunyan, a member of the parliamentary
state and legal affairs committee.
Legal experts in the former Soviet republic said the amnesty, proposed
by Sarksyan, would likely apply to former foreign minister Alexander
Arzumanyan and other opposition figures currently standing trial.
The move comes ahead of a June 24 sitting of the Council of Europe
at which the rights body is due to discuss the issue. The Council
had criticised the arrest and imprisonment of people for "political
reasons".
Justice Minister Gevorg Danielyan said anyone jailed for up to five
years would be freed, and those jailed for longer would see their
sentences halved. (Reporting by Hasmik Lazarian; writing by Matt
Robinson; editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)