Amnesty bill is purely humanitarian act, doesn’t seek cutting workload of prisons – acting minister of justice

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 24, ARMENPRESS. The bill on declaring criminal amnesty doesn’t seek a goal of reducing the workload of correctional facilities, it is an entirely humanitarian act, acting justice minister Artak Zeynalyan said during parliamentary debates of the bill.

“This is being implemented to mark the 2800th anniversary of Erebuni-Yerevan and the 100th anniversary of the First Republic of Armenia,” he said.

He said that as of today there are 2888 prisoners in correctional facilities in Armenia, whereas the system can house 5346 convicts or detainees, thus substantiating that the bill doesn’t seek to reduce workload.

The parliament is currently debating the bill on granting amnesty.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan