Artak Zeynalyan intends to notify society about amnesty process once  a week

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.