Epress.am News from Armenia
Sarkis Hatspanian and Murad Bojolyan will be released from prison in a few days, but not because of the authorities’ will, but because they have both fully served the sentence handed to them by the unjust Armenian courts, said human rights activist and head of the Committee for the Protection of Political Prisoners and Persecuted People Vardan Harutyunyan, speaking to journalists in Yerevan today.
“I particularly isolate the case of Sarkis Hatspanian because both this amnesty and the one announced in 2009 applied to him, but the authorities refused to release him, displaying individual treatment and an arbitrary approach towards him,” he said.
Harutyunyan also noted that the Committee for the Protection of Political Prisoners and Persecuted People issued a statement condemning the authorities’ vindictive treatment of Hatspanian, whose case falls completely outside of rationality, according to the human rights campaigner.
Since power is currently within the hands of those who are not legitimate and not elected, continued Harutyunyan, in no way does he rule out the possibility of political prisoners returning to prison.
Note, Hatspanian, a French citizen of Armenian descent, was arrested on Nov. 7, 2008, on charges of false denunciation and sentenced to three years in prison. His case, as well as that of Murad Bojolyan, are considered to be politically motivated. As such, the opposition refers to both men as political prisoners.