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Armenia given more time to release accused insurrectionists

Law to be eased with retroactive effect

by Tatul Hakobyan

Published: Friday January 30, 2009

Georges Colombier presents his report on Armenia while co-rapporteur John Prescott, center, looks on. Alban Bodineau / © Council of Europe

Yerevan - With Armenia's authorities and European civil rights monitors at an impasse over the release of prisoners detained in connection with the riots of March 1, and accused of attempting to "usurp state power," a key European body was set to impose sanctions on Armenia this week. But a plan put forward by the Speaker of Armenia's National Assembly broke the impasse and allowed Armenia to avoid the sanctions.

At the quarterly session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which brings together delegations from the parliaments of member-states, the state of democracy in Armenia was on the agenda for the third time since the March events.

In its April 2008 session, the assembly had demanded that "persons detained on seemingly artificial and politically motivated charges or who did not personally commit any violent acts or serious offences in connection with them should be released as a matter of urgency."

When the PACE Monitoring Committee met on December 17, it came to the conclusion that the charges and evidence against such persons was unpersuasive. The committee noted that in several cases, the courts had relied exclusively on police evidence. It also found that the laws under which many defendants had been charged was vague enough to allow for politically motivated prosecutions.

The Monitoring Committee drafted a resolution, to be presented to the January 27 session of the Parliamentary Assembly, declaring that Armenia was holding political prisoners and depriving the Armenian delegation to PACE from its right to vote.

The president of Armenia, Serge Sargsian, signaled his willingness to grant pardons to those who ask. And in fact he has already granted 28 pardons in March 1-related cases.

An applicant for a pardon has to acknowledge guilt, however, which made this solution unpalatable for many of the antigovernment figures in custody. A presidential amnesty would not require an admission of guilt, but the president ruled out amnesty for defendents who had not yet been tried, arguing that it would undermine the rule of law.

A solution

The PACE co-rapporteurs returned to Armenia a month after the December 17 Monitoring Committee meeting to make a final assessment of Armenia's compliance with PACE resolutions before the January 27 session.

At a meeting with the Speaker of the National Assembly, Hovik Abrahamian, a  solution to the impasse was discussed.

Then, on January 23, Mr. Abrahamian signed a decree setting up a working group to modify Articles 225 and 300 of Armenia's Criminal Code. These are the articles that the monitors had found to be overly vague.

The working group, chaired by Davit Harutiunian, who is the head of the parliament's Standing Committee on State and Legal Issues and of the Armenian delegation to PACE, has one month to prepare a revised law. It is to do its job in cooperation with the European Commission for Democracy through Law (the Venice Commission) and the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights.

In a letter to the co-rapporteurs, Mr. Abrahamian committed to getting the revisions passed within the following month. Under Armenia's constitution, he revisions would be retroactive - allowing for the release of prisoners.

Citing this commitment, the co-rapporteurs suggested to the Monitoring Committee that it revise its report to the Parliamentary Assembly.

The committee would not recommend a finding that Armenia was holding political prisoners and it would not recommend sanctions against Armenia. The committee agreed.

Thus, on January 27, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe voted 141 to three, with five abstentions, to adopt an amended resolution on Armenia.

This resolution, numbered 1643, gave Armenia until PACE's April session to fulfill the obligations set forth in it as well as Resolutions 1609 (April) and 1620 (June).

Resolution 1643 does not use the term "political prisoner."

It "welcomes" the decision of the Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia to take steps to amend Articles 225 and 300 of the Criminal Code "in order to address the legal shortcomings in these articles as noted, inter alia, by the Assembly and the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, and to bring them in line with Council of Europe standards."

The resolution also "welcomes the increasing number of pardons, 28 to date, that have been granted by the president of Armenia."

Opposition dissatisfied

The opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK) was quick to brush aside the Speaker's move as a ploy designed to mislead the international community. "The decree is a collection of lies," the HAK charged in a statement on Sunday. It claimed that only two of the pardoned men had been on the list of some 60 individuals considered by the opposition to be "political prisoners."

Arman Grigorian, a representative of the HAK who was in Strasbourg, told the Armenian daily Aravot that the adoption of the resolution was a disgrace for the Council of Europe because it was adopted "based upon false evidence."

PACE co-rapporteurs John Prescott and George Colombier, in their speeches at the assembly  stressed, however, that the Armenian authorities were truly taking steps toward fulfilling the assembly's demands and recommendations.

The "initiative taken by the National Assembly, together with the number of pardons granted and the steps taken to establish an independent inquiry, demonstrated a readiness on the part of the Armenian authorities to accept the advice of the Council of Europe," said Mr. Colombier. "The committee would recommend therefore that the Armenian delegation should not be suspended from the Assembly. However, the committee remained concerned for those people deprived of their liberty, in particular those imprisoned on police testimony alone," he added.