Epress.am News from Armenia
Out of the 362 Armenian convicts who had applied for a pardon in 2016, only 30 have been granted clemency by Armenia’s president; the presidential administration, however, is refusing to reveal the names of the pardoned prisoners, the local Hraparak newspaper writes, noting that they have been told by the public relations and mass media department of the president’s office that “the decrees concerning the presidential pardon appeals are private records which are not subject to mandatory publications and cannot be distributed without the applicant’s consent.”
The 30 prisoners pardoned in 2106, according to the department spokesperson, were mainly people who had been imprisoned for committing a crime of minor or medium gravity. So far in 2017, the president has granted clemency to 11 prisoners, who, incidentally, had also been convicted of minor or medium crimes.
“In the same manner [as the pardoned criminals], the persons mentioned in the daily statements issued by the Police, the Special Investigation Service, or the Prosecutor’s Office also need special protection; meanwhile, materials on the criminal cases involving these suspects, their photos and private details get widely distributed through social media and TV networks. We are therefore convinced that the refusal to release the names of the pardoned people in fact pursues a completely different goal – to conceal whom Serzh Sargsyan has granted clemency to. Because it would turn out that [minor criminals] are still imprisoned, while [major ones] have been exempted from punishment by a special presidential decree as they either have close relations with the authorities or have rendered certain services to the government,” Hraparak writes.