“Regime is untying its hands”
Statement by HAK
Contrary to the people's growing demand for ensuring the security of and releasing political prisoner, editor-in-chief of "Haykakan Zhamanak" daily Nikol Pashinyan, the latter has been transferred from "Kosh" penitentiary to Artik prison and, according to our data, with a strict regime.
The latest attack on Pashinyan at "Kosh" penitentiary by masked men, as well as keeping him in a punishment room for 15 days for no reason go to show that the regime had no other chance to silence Pashinyan by pressuring him at the penitentiary. The regime is not taking a step to ensure Pashinyan's security by transferring him to the Artik penitentiary, but is trying to fulfill two objectives: make it difficult for Pashinyan to have daily contact at a distance from the capital and untie its hands by pressuring him in a closed regime without any eyewitnesses.
We call on the society and each responsible citizen to join the editors, journalists, cultural figures and scientists in Armenia and abroad who have already raised their voices for Nikol Pashinyan's security, as well as his and the other political prisoners' immediate release. On the one hand, the subsequent act of violence against Nikol is a new, malicious expression of the authorities' vengeance and tyranny that recognizes no bounds and on the other hand, it is a touchstone of the persistence and consistency of citizens fighting for his freedom."
