ArmInfo.Acting Minister of Justice of Armenia Artak Zeynalyan intends to notify the public of the country about the amnesty process once a week. He stated this on October 31 at an extraordinary meeting of the National Assembly of Armenia, which discusses the draft law on declaring an amnesty in criminal cases in connection with the 2800th anniversary of Erebuni- Yerevan foundation and the 100th anniversary of the independence of the First Republic of Armenia.
According to him, the expected amnesty will be unprecedented in scale. If in previous years it was a question of several dozens of people, now, 270 persons may be left free. Thus, the Acting Minister continued, the state extends his hand to them, calling for reconciliation and proper behavior. The probation agency will also will also deal with the early release under the amnesty program. As for life-long prisoners, as noted by Artak Zeynalyan, petitions are submitted to the courts in relation to them. The issue of early release of life -sentence prisoners is a political vector for the new government of the country. And in each case an individual approach will be applied. He noted that at present there is a pardoning commission that considers cases, including those of life-sentence prisoners. The main thing in this matter, as the Acting Minister stressed is to reduce to a minimum the factor of subjectivity. Civil society, in turn, is provided with opportunities to protect the rights of prisoners.
To note that today, in front of the building of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, relatives and friends of life-sentence prisoners are holding a rally, demanding that the amnesty be extended to persons serving a life sentence. They declare that if their demand is not met, it will cause a new wave of emigration from Armenia. Earlier Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that not a single person who committed the murder will be released under an amnesty. According to the draft law, persons who committed premeditated murder or crimes with aggravating consequences, as well as convictions for life, are not entitled to an amnesty. In addition, no amnesty can be granted to persons convicted of torture, terrorism, sabotage, unlawful enrichment, crimes committed against journalists, sexual violence, released, but re-committed an intentional crime. In this case, the amnesty will take into account the views of the victims and their successors. In total, as noted by Artak Zeynalyan, 270 people will be granted amnesty, which is 15% of all prisoners. To recall, the last time amnesty for criminal cases was granted in 2013.