After a two-day break, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan talked on the live stream and touched upon the issue of political prisoners. He noted that there are simple and complicated cases. The cases when there are no casualties are “simple” and these political prisoners must be released from prisons in the manner prescribed by law:
“Let us see if there is a legitimate way to resolve this, if there is no such opportunity, we should think about amnesty release. But everything should be done within the law”.
He also expressed hope that no Armenian citizen would expect that he would enter prisons, open the doors and say, “guys, come out, let us go”. He specifically highlighted the “Sasna Tsrer” case, as there were casualties.
Nikol Pashinyan said that it is obvious for him that the settlement of the “Sasna Tsrer” case is crucial for establishing an atmosphere of solidarity in Armenia, and for this purpose, there should be public discussions in different formats. He also noted that, in this case, the views of the murdered policemen’s relatives should be heard as well, so that it is clear what is substantiated in those cases, what is fabricated, etc. “We should collect the complete information, put together to understand how to solve the problem”.
Nikol Pashinyan also stressed that he was a political prisoner earlier too, and in this case it is clear that the issue of political prisoners was one of the priorities for him when entering the Prime Minister’s room, but it is a complex issue that must be solved in the legal field, for which certain procedures are needed for a certain period of time.
He noted: “There should be no political prisoners in the Republic of Armenia, not only the current ones should be released but also there should be no political prisoners anymore. This is my political position, I hope you agree with me”.