Opposition activist to appeal to president for prisoners' release

Convicting innocent people and subjecting them to physical and psychological pressure is immoral, political scientist and blogger Suren Surenyants has said.

"The authorities demonstrate immoral attitude towards Nikol Pashinyan and other prisoners of conscience," he told journalists on Thursday.

The expert expressed his intention to join political prisoners' appeal for releasing Nikol Pashinyan and other convicts.

"Unless the authorities realize that by keeping political prisoners they lose their country, weakening their positions in the negotiation over Karabakh, we will always be doomed to failure," he said, adding that he was preparing to submit to President Serzh Sargsyan an appeal for the release of prisoners.

Asked whether the letter could serve as a basis for granting detainees pardon, he answered, "Those guys were sent to prison by Presidents Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan. Neither I nor anybody else is responsible for their arrest. I will admit any method by the president to release those people but will never agree to his choice to impose pardon upon them," Surenyants said.

According to him, any solution to the problem will be political, given that the detainees were arrested for political reasons.

In response to a comment that the president cannot declare amnesty without any basis, the political scientist expressed hesitation as to whether there were any grounds for arresting them at all.

"The case wasn't dismissed and their status remained unchanged," he added.