Danielyan: amnesty for political prisoners in Armenia is unlikely

Mikael Danielyan, a well-known legal expert and chairman of the Helsinki Association, believes that Real amnesty of political prisoners in Armenia is unlikely, while talks about it are just a demonstration for the world community.

"I think there will be no amnesty. I don't trust the authorities. Even if amnesty is announced, it won't cover political prisoners. It'll be just a show for the international community. I think that all the defendants on the cases related to the event on March 1, 2008, will get their guilty verdicts, irrespective of the proofs," Mr Danielyan said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to his version, during his recent meeting with Thomas Hammarberg, High Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, the latter said that the authorities of Armenia underestimated the gravity of the issue of releasing political prisoners.

The legal expert has noted that all the cases forged in the aftermath of the events of March 1, 2008, are collapsing. In his opinion, bright evidences of this are in kidnapping of witnesses, appeals of the prosecution to the court to stop interrogation of witnesses and, moreover, satisfaction by the court of these petitions.