Epress.am News from Armenia
Joining the weekly protest outside the general prosecutor's office demanding opposition activist Tigran Araqelyan's release today were war veterans, protesting unfair conditions since May, who also signed the petition to release the political prisoner Araqelyan. Armenian National Congress (HAK) vice-chair Aram Manukyan welcomed the move, emphasizing that their various issues — improved conditions for war veterans, exposing non-combat deaths in the army, and countering automated paid parking spots — cannot be resolved separately until the public comes together and the current authorities do not resign.
Circulated during the demonstration was a petition to release the activist on bail (rather than keeping him in prison, where he has remained for the past two years pending a verdict), which will then be submitted to the Court of Appeals for its next session. Recall, an appeal signed by more than 100 prominent public figures, promising to post bail and ensure the activist does not flee the country, was earlier rejected by the court, which refused for the third time to change its earlier decision.
Demonstraters have said their next move will be bringing international attention to the case. HAK will appeal to international bodies, asking various countries' ambassadors stationed in Armenia to monitor the case and ask the Armenian authorities to release the prisoner.
During today's demonstration, Manukyan also mentioned nomination of the candidate for general prosecutor, saying they don't have great expectations that Gevorg Kostanyan will change anything in the system.
Manukyan said that during its meeting with Kostanyan, the HAK parliamentary faction raised the following issues: the cases of March 1 victims, political prisoners, and Tigran Araqelyan, a review of the issue of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party, eliminating the practice of remand or pre-trial detention instead of bail in 95% of cases, and the fight against corruption.
"In any case, we have no hope that he will resolve these issues. We have no illusion that in this country there could be a prosecutor who can solve these matters. We raised those issues as a matter of courtesy, and we've agreed to get the answers to those questions in a short period of time," said Manukyan.