Armenia must declare 'last ever amnesty', revising life-termers’ cases – opinion  

In their current state-building efforts, ruling out a return to the former traditions, the Armenian authorities must declare the last ever amnesty in the country, applying the practice to two categories of life-termers, according to Avetik Ishkhanyan, the president of the Helsinki Committee of Armenia.

“Convicts normally relied on amnesty as [the only real] chance for being released before the expiry of their term, because the mechanism applying to civilized countries, i.e. – early release, did not practically work in Armenia,” he told Tert.am, citing the absence of an independent judiciary as a serious obstacle in that process.

Ishkhanyan said he finds amnesty unnecessary for a state where the practice of early release is fully applicable under conditions of a real separation of powers.

“Amnesty, I think, should now cover other categories too. For the reinstatement of justice, in particular, it is important to apply it to two categories of life-termers: those who were sentenced to execution but had their punishment replaced after the abolition of the death penalty in 2003 … and the life-termers who committed a criminal offence until the age of 21,” he explained.

Ishkhanyan called especially for a considerate approach to military crimes committed by conscripts aged 18-21. “Another thing we need to consider in dealing with military crimes is that the victims here are not only the victims in esesnce but also those who committed the offence, because that often has to do with the morals in the army, as well as the society,” he noted.