YEREVAN, JANUARY 30, ARMENPRESS. 30 people from the 581 inmates who were pardoned and released in December of 2018 have again committed crimes, Chief of Staff of Armenian Police Colonel Armen Ghukasyan said at a news conference.

“The Police Chief has ordered to carry out surveillance against those released under the clemency. 581 people have been pardoned and released, of whom 30 have committed 42 crimes as of today,” he said, adding the crimes were mostly robberies.

He said that 10 years ago law enforcement had carried out a study which showed that crime rates tend to grow the following year of a clemency.

“This doesn’t mean that this humanitarian step that the government is carrying out for criminals is a wrong attitude, and I believe that these people should simply be under surveillance and control. Unfortunately the current legislation doesn’t yet enable full supervision for these people,” he said.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan