NO POLITICAL PERSECUTION?

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On March 31 the Ago group of monitoring of the CoE Committee of Ministers met with the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia.

The delegation brought up the following issues: 1) the grounds for the ban on visits of family to arrested or detained persons; 2) the possibility of releasing people arrested or detained in connection with the mass disorders on March 1; 3) the justification of the recent amendments to the RA law on meetings, rallies, marches and demonstrations; 4) the possibility of an impartial and transparent investigation of the mass disorders of March 1 and statements on further investigation, 5) the necessity for the government to start a dialogue with the opposition political forces without preconditions.

There were also questions on the amount, type and usage of weapons that were found. The ministry of justice explained that the legal ground for visits of families are set down in Article 15 of the RA law on detained and arrested people, according to which only the body investigating the case can ban visits. At the same time, it was informed that such a decision has been made in a limited number of cases. In addition, this ban does not affect the human rights defender and can be reconsidered.

The spokesman of the minister of justice reports that the Committee of Venice extended a conclusion on the amendments to the law on meetings, rallies, marches and demonstrations, and the minister of justice said willing to discuss it thoroughly. It was noted that the law does not contain any provision which is not known to the legislations of the EU members. Moreover, according to the spokesman, relatively milder restrictions on freedom of peaceful rallies have been selected than those of the national legislations of those countries.

With regard to a dialogue, the group was informed that that the president elect Mr. Serzh Sarkissian has made a number of distinct official statements to which some opposition forces have already responded. Even though some opposition political forces reject a political dialogue, deny that the international observation mission was unbiased and display lack of confidence in any force which does not share their ideas, the government is ready for a political dialogue without reservations, the spokesman for the RA minister of justice reports.