"TOMAS, HELP US"
Support A1+!Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, Thomas Hammarberg, met with representatives of Armenian NGOs at the CoE Yerevan Office on July 13.
Meanwhile, members of the “Movement of Armenian Women” picketed in front of the CoE Office holding the pictures of their detained husbands.
“Release political prisoners,” “Free and independent Armenia,” “Thomas, help us,” they repeated.
Commander of a Shushi Special Battalion, Zhirair Sefilian met with the Deputy Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, half an hour later.
“I have given them exact figures about the eighty-two political prisoners in Armenia. I also informed them of a sit-down strike in Northern Avenue. We have invited the CoE Ombudsman to Northern Avenue,” Zhirair Sefilian said to A1+.
Ex Speaker of the National Assembly, Karapet Rubinian, could attend the meeting as a member of the newly-formed committee on the “Protection of Political Prisoners.”
“I had no right to ask questions. But I told Mr. Hammarberg that I was speaking in the name of the picketers. I said their protest action was not against the CoE. Just on the contrary, they asked the Commissioner for assistance as his previous report was impartial. “We would like you to be consistent, I said,” Karapet Rubinian told A1+.
