Statement on the Rights of Political Prisoners

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has adopted two resolutions – 1609 and 1620 related to the events taken place in Yerevan, on March 1-2, 2008.

Resolution 1609 calls for carrying out immediate investigation of the events of March 1, 2008 and their consequences, including credible independent investigation of the alleged excessive use of force by the police.
  In resolution 1620 it is mentioned that the commission should have the right to examine the circumstances following the events of March 1, as well as the events after that, especially the cases of the arrests of opposition activists and accusations brought against them.
  On June 16, 2008 by the decision of RA National Assembly “An ad hoc commission to investigate the events of March 1 and 2 and their consequences” was formed. The decision defined the objectives of the commission but examination of the issue on arrests of opposition activists and accusations made against them were not among them.
  On October 23, by the president decree an Expert Data-Gathering group was established. The main purpose of the group’s activity was to collect facts and pass to the ad hoc commission, so that the latter is able to carry out investigation of the reasons of the events, find out the circumstances of death cases and assess the legality of the police officers’ actions during those events.
  In fact, by the adoption of the PACE resolutions and due to the measures taken by RA authorities in accordance with them, two important facts have been recorded:
  1. PACE directly expressed its mistrust to RA law enforcement bodies and demanded that they take concrete steps directed towards revealing the cases taken place on March 1-2 in order to call to responsibility those who had been guilty.
  2. The Armenian authorities accepted that the measures taken by the law enforcement bodies related to the events of March 1-2 were insufficient and they have established a commission and a group to ensure “independent investigation.” At the same time, RA law enforcement bodies continue criminal pursuits against opposition activists and representatives. RA courts continue trials of criminal cases brought against opposition activists and representatives without taking into account the circumstance of collecting facts and their investigation by the ad hoc commission and the expert group.
  In such a situation, the establishment of the ad hoc commission and the expert group, as well as their activity is surprising and illogical for the following reasons:
  1. With its famous resolutions PACE considered “independent, transparent and credible investigation” important, but did not point to the order or the body of its execution.
  2. RA legislation defines the list of bodies liable to carry out investigation and pretrial. They are RA prosecutor’s office, the special investigative service. In the Republic of Armenia, except for the information (testimonies) legally collected and developed by the pretrial body, no other information can be included in the accusation, which can call a person to responsibility. Realizing this fact RA authorities form bodies and give them rights to gather testimonies. It means that instead of conducting independent and fair investigation, RA authorities on the one hand express their mistrust to RA investigative bodies and RA prosecutor’s office, on the other hand, from the very beginning they use mechanisms against the legislation.
  By establishing an ad hoc commission and a special expert group, RA legislative body and the president have granted them rights but they have not defined in any way the order of using the information and facts gathered by these bodies. In this case, it is obvious that the work of the ad hoc commission and the expert group is not acceptable for the law enforcement bodies. Therefore, criminal cases brought related to the events of March 1-2, the accusations and the court decisions continue to take place based on incomplete and not proved facts.
  The only legal way out of this illogical and absurd situation is:
  • immediate release of all the representatives of the opposition representatives and stopping criminal pursuits against them before the end of the ad hoc commission’s and expert group’s activity. Otherwise, all the accusations signed by RA prosecutor general Aghvan Hovsepyan, cannot be considered justified, because the facts that can present the full picture of March 1-2 events have not been gathered yet.