Nikol Pashinyan and Sasun Mikaelyan to be Released?

By the first half of May, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan is preparing to release all Armenian National Congress (HAK) leader Levon Ter-Petrossian loyalists who are imprisoned for their connection to the events of March 1, 2008, and who the opposition bloc considers political prisoners, including Nikol Pashinyan and Sasun Mikaelyan, reports local daily Chorrord Inqnishkhanutyun (“Fourth Self-Authority”).

“Serzh Sargsyan told his intimate circle [of friends] that Sargis Hatspanian and Murad Bojolyan won’t be among those to be released. ‘It’s not for political activities that they’re arrested,’ said Serzh Sargsyan,” writes Chorrord Inqnishkhanutyun.

Recall, releasing all “political prisoners” is one of HAK’s three demands that the opposition group has said the authorities must meet before its rally today — otherwise, Apr. 28 will be “either a day of the beginning of dialogue or a day of the final watershed between the authorities and the public,” recalls RFE/RL’s Armenian service.

It is not yet clear what the opposition bloc will do if its demands are not met in full by Thursday.