“We know Shant Harutyunyan as a political prisoner. We have stated about it is our reports”,-such opinion was expressed by Chairman of Armenia Helsinki Committee, Avetik Ishkhanyan, in the conversation with Aravot.am.
To inform that in the end of the year, members of public observation group visited “Kentron” CED, and met with Shant Harutyunyan who has announced a hunger strike. Avetik Ishkhanyan was also in this group. He presented details of the meeting to Aravot.am. “Shant Harutyunyan was not complaining about the conditions, not to speak about banning the visits and phone calls. We are talking about the situation, in general.”
However, this fact is not acceptable for Mr. Ishkhanyan. He conveyed the following, “Banning is unclear for me. It’s one more punishment to Shant, I do not understand the logic of it. This is done when dealing with dangerous criminals. Whereas Shant does everything openly and honestly, I just do not understand this logic. This is absurd. This shows the pointless cruelty of Armenian authorities. By and large, I consider the detention of Shant Harutyunyan and his supporters excessive activity of the RA authorities. Shant Harutyunyan statements were merely rhetorical, since they have no petrol bottles, and nothing at all. It was an outbreak of the existing situation in Armenia. This shows the helplessness of the RA authorities.”
Mr. Ishkhanyan has also doubts that the authorities were afraid that Shant’s action would become an example for many young people.
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To my question of how the Minister of Justice, Hrayr Tovmasyan, does not consider Shant Harutyunyan a political prisoner, Mr. Ishkhanyan responded as follows, “Is there a country in the world that recognizes that it has political prisoners? If Hrayr Tovmasyan, being a representative of the system, admits that there are political prisoners in Armenia, the next day he would leave the office.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
