Epress.am News from Armenia
Earlier this evening, Armenian political prisoner Gabriel Gabrielyan was released from the prison hospital on conditional parole. Gabrielyan was arrested on April 17, 2008, found guilty under charges of RA Criminal Code Article 225 Section 1 (“organizing mass disorders”), and sentenced to 7 years’ imprisonment.
Gabrielyan is related to National Assembly deputy, former political prisoner himself Hakob Hakobyan.
“The important thing is we’ve remained human,” said Gabrielyan, coming out of the hospital.
Committee for the Protection of Political Prisoners and Persecuted People coordinator Vardan Harutyunyan, speaking to Epress.am, said there cannot be talk of writing an application for pardon in the case of any of Armenia’s political prisoners.
“They will be released in a way that’s acceptable for the authorities and honorable for our political prisoners,” he said.
Furthermore, Harutyunyan noted that the release of political prisoners is the result of, first and foremost, the effect of Armenian public pressure, as well as international pressure.
“As a result of both of these pressures, the government cannot tolerate it any longer and have taken on the obligation to release political prisoners. They don’t have the audacity to release all of them and they are trying to resolve the issue with conditional parole,” said the committee coordinator.