Demand for release of political prisoners
The "Center for Rights and Freedom" NGO (headed by Vardan Harutyunyan) today issued a declaration:
"Contrary to the demands of Armenian society and the international community, the Armenian authorities continue to keep political prisoners in prison. The authorities are also continuing to pressure and assault them in prison by not being content with the ideas of their political opponents and by sentencing the latter based on false charges.
By using their levers, the heads of the penitentiaries are trying to create an inimical environment for political prisoners at the penitentiaries and intolerable conditions so that they will step down from the struggle and reject their ideas. The authorities haven't been successful in doing that for over two years now and they will never be successful.
The presses continue to release articles about the Armenian authorities' illegal actions and assaults against political prisoner Nikol Pashinyan. Yesterday Pashinyan's attorney Vahe Grigoryan issued a protocol in the presence of the "Artik" penitentiary representative, which clearly shows that the authorities are still taking illegal actions to keep Pashinyan away from the outside world, deprive him of the right to receive personal letters, to meet with this attorney and write articles. It is clear that the authorities' major objective is to suspend Pashinyan's activities as a journalist and keep him at the penitentiary as long as possible.
The "Center for Rights and Freedom" demands the immediate release of all political prisoners. Once again, condemning all of the Armenian authorities' steps aimed at violating the rights and endangering the security of all political prisoners, especially Nikol Pashinyan, we call on Armenian and international law defense and other non-governmental organizations, as well as political parties to join us in defending Pashinyan and raise their voices in his defense. The journalist's life is in danger and the entire state apparatus is working against him," as stated in the declaration.
