Parliamentary committee to debate amnesty bill in coming days – acting justice minister

The Armenian parliamentary standing committee on state-legal affairs and human rights protection will debate the bill on Amnesty in coming days, acting justice minister Artak Zeynalyan told reporters in the Parliament.

“There is going to be a great amnesty. The parliamentary standing committee on state-legal affairs and human rights protection will discuss the bill in coming days after which concrete numbers will be announced”, he said, commenting on the media reports according to which amnesty will be applied for 800-850 persons.

The acting minister added that he will not announce any number at the moment as the bill is secret and he has no right to present numbers.

Asked whether the amnesty is linked with reducing the overload of correctional facilities, the acting minister said: “Today there is no problem of overload in Armenia’s correctional facilities. This government, the justice ministry have already solved this problem. There is no one in the correctional facilities who has no place to sleep. Today the number of convicts and prisoners reaches 2930-2940 in the correctional facilities. There hasn’t been such figure in Armenia.

That number has always been 3800 and more. The aim of the amnesty is not to reduce the overload of the correctional facilities, it’s an amnesty, a humanitarian act which is being carried out by the government on behalf of the public”.