Helsinki Committee of Armenia President Avetik Ishkhanyan spoke about the amnesty project and said that it was discussed among a group and he expressed his view during his press conference. He said that amnesty pardoning is a humanitarian act, not a political one, and should not be regarded as such. He also said that the victims’ opinions also need to be taken into consideration somewhat during the amnesty process, according to international fundamentals.
“Taking into consideration that the project for amnesty pardoning was accepting in parliament, it has to also uphold the rule of law,” he said.
“Article 2, point 11 of the project is regarding specific people and the specific group of people who took over the police regiment in 2016. Point 11 of Article 4 states that, in case of availability of a legal act, the prisoner does not need to agree to amnesty. Understand that I agree that amnesty should be granted to the “Sasna Tsrer” group, but that should not be specifically targeted, instead it should be in accordance with overall legal fundamentals.”
Nelly Babayan
