Armenia: imprisoned oppositionist is against amnesty

Gagik Dzhangiryan, an activist of Armenian opposition and former Deputy General Public Prosecutor, convicted for rendering resistance to power officials, is against amnestying political prisoner, saying that they had committed no crimes; therefore, the concept of amnesty is inapplicable to them.

"Amnesty is announced with the aim to relieve punishment of those, who have committed crimes. We, political prisoners, have not broken any law and committed no crimes. Why should we be pardoned for what we never did? We, political prisoners, have initially voiced against application of amnesty to us, same as of other measures towards our early relief," runs Gagik Dzhangiryan's statement.

He continued: "The adopted pardon act will enable hundreds of accomplices in criminal actions of this regime to escape criminal liability. Thus, I'd advise the authorities to make a broader amnesty - the broader the better for the ruling power."

According to Vaagn Khachatryan, a representative of the oppositional Armenian National Congress, none of the imprisoned oppositionists is going to accept amnesty: "They are offended when talked about it, they say: "You think of yourself and don't care about us."