Epress.am News from Armenia
For a few days now rumors have been circulating (especially among Armenian National Congress activists) that imprisoned oppositionist Sasun Mikaelyan will be released any day now.
Epress.am attempted to receive confirmation from the Hospital for Detainees of the RA Ministry of Justice, where Mikaelyan is being treated; however, a hospital employee informed us that he has no information.
“Today [being May 9, Victory Day] is not a working day, and we don’t give out such information; please call on a working day,” he said.
Mikaelyan was arrested in March 2008 in connection with the events of Mar. 1–2, 2008, in Yerevan and charged with violating Article 225 (“mass disorder”) and 235 (“illegal weapons possession”) of Armenia’s Criminal Code.
“Sentenced to eight years in prison, he is the only one of the seven not to have been released on amnesty or other grounds. After more than a year and a half in the Kentron Penitentiary of the National Security Service (former KGB), he was transferred to the prison hospital, and then to a civilian hospital where he underwent surgery in mid-December,” according to the Shahkhtun: Wives of Armenia’s Political Prisoners website.
Recall, HAK leader Levon Ter-Petrossian announced during the opposition’s April 28 rally that he expects the only unfulfilled demand of the three demands he put forth to the Sargsyan administration — to free all remaining political prisoners — to be met by May 28.
However, a group of disgruntled demonstrators didn’t want to leave Liberty Square on Apr. 28 and sat on the steps of the opera building, calling for a sit-in. HAK coordinator Levon Zurabyan appealed to the activists and said if all remaining political prisoners are not released by May 31, he will join the sit-in they are calling for.