16 April 2008, 11:19
PACE representative indicates inadmissibility of political prisoners in Armenia
The demand of the Council of Europe concerning political prisoners in Armenia remains unchanged: people shall not be imprisoned for their political convictions.
The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports that this was stated by Thomas Hammerberg, CE's High Commissioner for Human Rights, to the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
He hesitated to specify who out of recent Armenian detainees could be regarded to be a political prisoner.
According to T. Hammerberg, during the arrests the Prosecutor's Office presented very vague formulations: "We need to avoid situations, when there are no grounds to initiate criminal cases, when people are viewed as traitors and enemies of the state for their participation in anti-governmental rallies and spoke critically about the authorities - this is no reason for criminal prosecution," the High Commissioner has stated.
The Commissioner has reported that currently the Council of Europe is waiting for response of the government of Armenia on holding an independent investigation into the events on March 1. According to his story, should the response be positive, the CE will be ready to provide experts for taking part in the investigation.
Author: Lilit Ovanisyan, CK correspondent
