Epress.am News from Armenia
Armenia's National Assembly voted on Thursday to appoint Artur Davtyan as prosecutor general of the country. Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan's initiative to appoint Davtyan to the post of the head of the Prosecutor General's Office was backed by 97 MPs.
Armenia's parliament spent the last 4 days discussing Davtyan's candidacy. During Wednesday's sitting, Aram Manukyan, the secretary the opposition Armenian National Congress faction, said the ANC representatives were not going to participate in the vote since they had doubts regarding Davtyan’s fairness and impartiality as the country’s chief prosecutor.
Nikol Pashinyan, an ANC lawmaker and a former political prisoner, for his part, wanted to find out whether the then-candidate thought there were any political prisoners or "political non-prisoners" in Armenia since Davtyan had said in a previous conversation with reporters that he didn't believe there were currently people in the country who had been arrested for their political views.
“I mean, to become a political prisoner one must be prosecuted for political reasons and – as is my understanding – those who do not get prosecuted for these same political reasons should therefore be considered political non-prisoners; say, they have close ties with Serzh Sargsyan. So, don't you see political non-prisoners when you look at those sitting here?” Pashinyan said, pointing to the seats occupied by members of the ruling Republican Party.
Davtyan, however, answered that he had not changed his mind and insisted that there were indeed no political prisoners in Armenia.
Note, over the past few years a number of local and international human rights organizations have spoken about the continued presence of political prisoners in Armenia. Shant Harutyunyan and his supporters, reserve colonel Volodya Avetisyan and anti-government activist Hayk Kyureghyan are among those who have been recognized as political prisoners by international watchdogs, local NGOs and political forces.