Epress.am News from Armenia
Amnesty is not a humanist act because it was dictated not by humanism, but by necessity, as a result of appropriate pressure, said human rights campaigner Vardan Harutyunyan, while speaking to journalists in Yerevan today.
“If it had been dictated by humanism, then it would’ve happened much earlier; people wouldn’t have been arrested for political reasons, so that after, three years later, they would release them [as an act] of so-called humanism,” he said.
Asked whether the amnesty will ease the issue of overcrowding in prisons, Harutyunyan said:
“Recently in Armenia, there were more prisoners than there ever have been. And one of the main reasons for this is that the [current] administration refuses to make use of conditional early release. Thus, penal institutions are burdened with people who continue to remain in prison. Furthermore, the prosecution and the police always ask for detention [imprisonment] — whether the person has committed a grave crime or a minor crime, whether it’s his first time, whether he’s a minor or an adult, as a rule, he’s arrested.”
According to Harutyunyan, there have always been less than 4,000 prisoners in Armenia, but this number has grown in recent years.