Political prisoners are tortured in Armenia: Alexander Arzumanyan

Opposition calls for urgent steps to release political prisoners in Armenia, former political prisoner and Armenia’s ex-Foreign Minister Alexander Arzumanyan told Tert.am during the protest held by opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) in front of the General Prosecutor’s Office.

“We call for urgent steps towards releasing all the political prisoners in Armenia, as those people have not committed any crime,” said Mr Arzumanyan.

“That’s a big disgrace. It’s a shame to have political prisoners and three times bigger shame to know that they are being tortured. That’s like a medieval practice for which everybody will be held responsible,” the opposition activist said, referring to reported acts of violence against political prisoner, Editor-in-Chief of Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper Nikol Pashinyan.

Pashinyan currently serves sentence in Kosh penitentiary in Aragatsotn marz (province).

HAK coordinator Levon Zurabyan noted in turn that their party has turned to different international human rights organizations and some embassies in Armenia to voice protest in over the issue.

“We use all possible levers to raise the publicity of the issue. All these acts of violence are aimed at silencing Haykakan Zhamanak (Armenian Time) newspaper and extorting parole from prisoners,” he said,

With the growing number of protest participants, more policemen gather in front of the General Prosecutor’s Office to control the crowd.