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All March 1 Prisoners to be Released, Except for Pashinyan and Mikayelyan: Zurabyan

“Lately, the regime has shown obvious manifestations of panic. This is evidenced by the recent attack on Nikol Pashinyan by representatives of the criminal world. This is evidenced by the attack by more than 5 dozen police officers on our 8 youth who were peaceful standing. A question arises: why are the authorities so afraid [and] nervous?” asked opposition group Armenian National Congress (HAK) coordinator Levon Zurabyan at this evening’s HAK rally.

“According to our information, the authorities have decided to release all prisoners who were sentenced in the March 1 [2008] case  except Nikol Pashinyan and Sasun Mikayelyan. And so the moment is decisive. We will do everything to achieve the release of all without exception,” he said. 

Referring to recent much publicized media reports, for example the Medicare scam by Armenians in the US and the smuggling of highly enriched uranium (HEU) by two older Armenian nationals from Armenia to Georgia, Zurabyan then went on to say that it is thanks to “our criminal government,” that the entire world acknowledges Armenia as a place for supporting the criminal world and criminals. 

The HAK coordinator explained his statement by asking why the Armenian government was unable to uncover the import and export of HEU in and out of the country. 

“This has no other explanation other than that the RA government having a direct connection to these cases,” he said. 

Zurabyan continued by listing various issues that are causing the Armenian people to reach a critical state: “the 1.5 billion outflow of capital, the increase in price of food items (such as cheese).” The opposition group member than said all of HAK’s steps must result in the “elimination of the RA criminal government” and the establishment of order.