The Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan spoke about releasing the political prisoners, hence today, the journalists asked Hovhannes Manukyan, the former Minister of Justice, if there were any people deemed political prisoners in the opinion of NGOs and in the society’s perception, and which of them should not be released.
Hovhannes Manukyan answered: “We should give these processes a legal coverage, otherwise it would be a self-acting: And any other government can make a decision whether the person is a political prisoner or not. Actually there are two indicators of the political prisoner’s formulation, first, the person has not committed a criminal offense, in fact, the criminal persecution is for the political views. Second, the person has committed a crime, but his persecution is much more severe than the one the person has committed. This approach should be taken into account. We should understand that in case such a legal “mistake” or intentional thing has happened anyway, we should estimate it by means of the existing laws. There should be a legal process, and it should be amnesty, forgiveness… and we should pass through this procedure”.
Hovhannes Manukyan said, that there is also a problem of handling the penitentiaries, as amnesty has not been announced for many years and the people that are in the penitentiary institutions for a minor offense, should have the opportunity of returning to the society.
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
