MP Tigran Abrahamyan from the “I Have Honor” parliamentary faction stated on his Facebook page that Armenia’s penitentiary institutions are severely overcrowded, with numerous issues emerging due to arbitrary governance and selective justice.
“A few days ago, imprisoned businessman Samvel Karapetyan made a public statement through his lawyers, addressing problems in the judicial system and the treatment of detainees and convicts in prisons.
It is important that the businessman has pledged to allocate resources to defend the rights of incarcerated individuals. Under the current administration, arbitrary rule and selective justice have caused many problems in this area.
But there is another pressing issue, one that I keep hearing from inmates and their families: there has been no general amnesty for the past seven years, and our prisons are overwhelmed. Some legal provisions could have allowed for amnesty, both to help people reintegrate into society and to ease prison overcrowding.
This government sees no future for people behind bars and places no value on reintegration, regardless of how the person ended up in prison or whether they seek a fresh start,” Abrahamyan wrote.
On the night of June 18, Samvel Karapetyan left his Yerevan residence with law enforcement. Later it was announced he had been questioned by the Investigative Committee and subsequently detained for two months on charges of making public calls to seize government authority.
A few hours earlier, Karapetyan had issued a strong statement supporting the Armenian Apostolic Church, saying: “I stand with our church and our people. No matter how they try to defame it—whatever power grid they run—I don’t care about them or their electricity network. Everything will be fine. The people will speak, and they will understand their mistake.”
In response, Prime Minister Pashinyan posted: “Why have the promiscuous ‘clergy’ and their promiscuous ‘benefactors’ become active again? Never mind—we’ll silence them once more. This time, permanently.” He later added that the power grid (Electric Networks of Armenia) should be rapidly nationalized.
