Artur Sakunts. There will be prisoners of conscience in Armenia as long as the issue of Independent Judiciary is not Resolved

Human rights activist Artur Sakunts, head of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor is certain that there will political prisoners or as he put, prisoners of conscience in Armenia as long as the issue of independent judiciary and fair verdicts is not resolved. 

The human rights activist told www.news.am  correspondent about this.  By his words, the issue of specifically prisoners of conscience has not been overcome in Armenia yet, because unlike political prisoners, followers of a number of religious organizations are still being kept at detention facilities until present.

Sakunts believes, the fact that there are no political prisoners at detention facilities of Armenia at this point, does not mean the problem has been completely resolved. 

“The most significant guarantee for them is to reach acquittal verdicts. It means, since those people were released by general amnesty and not by innocence grounds and they were sentenced to imprisonment as a result of non-objective court trials, the issue remains unresolved”, stated the human rights activist.

It should be noted that political prisoners Nikol Pashinyan and Sasun Mikaelyan were released on May 27, after a 3-year incarceration since 2008. Political prisoners Sarkis Hatspanian and Murad Bojolyan  were released from detention facilities on June 9 and June 10, respectively.

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