Arrests in Armenia are carried out on political orders – Aram Vardevanyan

In Armenia, detention is not a preventive measure established by the Criminal Procedure Code but is determined outside the law, driven by political objectives, lawyer Aram Vardevanyan wrote on his Facebook page.

“There are political prisoners in Armenia, and the objective has been set to literally fill penitentiary institutions with people. Imagine: Samvel Karapetyan has been in prison for more than five months, while 53 investigators, numerous prosecutors, and a number of judges, ignoring law and justice, demand and choose detention as the only preventive measure. In reality, there is no data, no grounds in this case. There is no case, but there is an unlawful arrest lasting more than five months.

By the way, the supposed goals and problems that detention could solve can be fully addressed by other preventive measures. But it is already a fact, a long-established fact, that in Armenia detention is applied only on political orders.

Therefore, detention is not a preventive measure established by the Criminal Procedure Code but is determined outside the law, driven by political objectives.

Our society still cannot recover from the shock that a national benefactor, the Holy Fathers, Member of Parliament Artur Sargsyan, other individuals, and political prisoner Lidia Mantashyan can not only be detained but kept in custody for a long time. In Armenia, Narek and Vazgen are again arrested, even if only for shocking or unpleasant words. In other words, this raises a reasonable question: is there really no other preventive measure in Armenia?

The answer is obvious: of course, other preventive measures exist, but political persecution does not accept them, and courts in such cases cannot allow themselves to apply other measures. Therefore, we must never despair or doubt that the law—even in this absurd, authoritarian approach—must ultimately prevail.

Freedom to all political prisoners,” he wrote.