Home / Armenia

Armenian president rules out general amnesty for activists in March 1 cases

Calls for legal process to take its course

by Armen Hakobyan

Published: Friday December 26, 2008

President Serge Sargsian at a holiday reception in December 2008. Photolure

Yerevan - President Serge Sargsian on December 23 ruled out a general amnesty for opposition activists being held in connection with post-election violence on March 1-2 that cost 10 lives, as the trial of seven leading activists continued.

The spokesperson for the president's Republican Party of Armenia expressed confidence that the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe would back down from its December 17 decision to recommend a finding that Armenia was holding political prisoners.

The Monitoring Committee had acknowledged that Armenia has gone a long way toward mitigating the civil-rights concerns raised by the March 1 violence and the ensuing 20-day declared state of emergency. The committee had concluded, however, that some people were being held as political prisoners. It voted to recommend to PACE, at its next session in late January, that Armenia's voting rights be suspended until the authorities had "clearly demonstrated their political will to resolve" the issue of the prisoners.

Speaking to RFE/RL on Dec. 25, Armen Rustamian, a leader of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, which is one of the Republicans' coalition partners, acknowledged that Armenia would quite possibly be slapped with sanctions. "Armenia's reputation and image will be called into question for nothing," he said, adding that Mr. Sargsian should have pardoned the activists months ago.

Mr. Rustamian, who heads the Armenian parliament's Committee on Foreign Relations, said the accusations leveled against the activists have "an inherent political subtext."

Rule of law

Asked by the Armenian Reporter during a holiday reception for journalists on December 23 whether he would declare a general amnesty for the New Year, President Sargsian said emphatically that he would not.

He said he could not justify such a step. Given the seriousness of the charges against the March 1 defendants, the president said he would be unable to explain an amnesty to the members of his political team.

In joining the Council of Europe in 2001, Armenia made a binding commitment to comply with European standards of democracy and human rights.

The Council of Europe's commissioner for human rights has complained that Armenia's prosecutors and courts have relied almost exclusively on police testimony in convicting people in connection with the March 1 events. No law-enforcement officers have been charged in connection with events in which eight civilians as well as two officers were killed.

However, the criminal investigation is ongoing. At the same time, an inquiry into the events by a specially constituted parliamentary commission and a group of experts is underway.

Citing European principles of prosecutorial and judicial independence, the president said he should not be asked to circumvent the process.

The president also noted that under Armenian law, the accused must accept their guilt in order to be included in an amnesty. If he were to declare amnesty, he said, what if defendant Sassun Mikaelian, a member of parliament now on trial, were to say, "I don't want a pardon"? The president asked what he would do in that circumstance.

The president has pardoned a handful of minor figures who had been convicted in March 1-related cases.