Armenian President had No Right to Determine Punishment: Human Rights Lawyers (updated)

A 2003 decree by then president of Armenia Robert Kocharian that granted 38 prisoners amnesty by having their death penalty sentence changed to life imprisonment violated the European Convention on Human Rights and also Armenia’s Constitution, said experts at a round table on Thursday on issues of prisoners in Armenia sentenced to life in prison.

Human rights lawyer Arayik Ghazaryan asserted that according to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the former president only had the right to grant a pardon, but not to decide the punishment — that’s the function of the judiciary.

“Article 7 of the European Convention says that the penalty should be made only on the basis of law. But the European Court’s right to precedence says pardon, mitigation of the sentence, is not subject to Article 7 because it’s the application of punishment and not the appointing of punishment,” said Ghazaryan, adding that if those 38 prisoners were to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, Armenia would have some problems on its hands.

The president, it seems, determined the punishment also in the eyes of Armenia’s legislation, added human rights lawyer Vahe Grigoryan, explaining that, it seems, “punishment determined by the president” has replaced the death penalty.

Another issue that concerns the Civil Initiative to Support Prisoners Sentenced to Life is that the 2010 legislative amendment which determined the maximum sentence for life imprisonment to be 20 years (instead of the previous 15) doesn’t actually address cases examined before the amendment was made.

“In some cases, considering 15 years to be a light sentence, judges in the past preferred to give life sentences. It was assumed that by determining the maximum to be 20 years, the number of those given life sentences would be reduced. However, all 97 lifers [out of 104 in the country] who appealed to the courts (with the request to review their punishments), considering that the change is applicable retroactively, were rejected by the court,” said Armenian Helsinki Committee human rights lawyer Robert Revazyan, adding that, in his opinion, the court made a wrong move, since if these same people were sentenced today not all would be given life sentences.

Updated 3 pm on Friday, Jan. 27: “Robert Kocharian” replaced “Serzh Sargsyan” who was incorrectly named as the president who granted the amnesty.