Valodya Avetisyan submits open letter: “We need a clear-cut answer”
Within the past 2 month, political prisoner Volodya Avetisyan has already submitted his second open letter to the competent state agencies on early release on parole and replacing the non-served part of the sentence with a lighter sentence. Below is the full letter. To: Mr. A. Osikyan, Head of the RA MoJ Penitentiary Department, General-Major of Justice, From: Volodya Avetisyan, Convict at ‘Vardashen’ Penitentiary Dear Mr. Osikyan, on June 18, I sent an open letter to the RA National Assembly deputies, the Human Rights Defender and high officials in judiciary by raising a number of issues on the mass infringements on convicts’ rights within the administration of justice. In particular, I meant the processes of early release on parole and replacing the non-served part of the sentence with a lighter sentence. I received a written reply to my letter from the Penitentiary Department stating that the issues raised were regulated by the relevant articles of the RA Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes, RA Presidential Decrees, etc (that’s all the reply letter stated). Dear Mr. Osikyan, both me and thousands of convicts are well aware of the Codes and Decrees above; there is no need to remind us of them; instead, we need a clear-cut answer on why such laws have not been applied for years or are applied only for a few persons on a selective basis. But everyone shall be equal before the law (RA Constitution), shall not they? More here
