Samvel Karapetyan and Mikayel Ajapahyan are political prisoners according to the criteria set by the PACE resolution. Marukyan

Edmon Marukyan, the chairman of the "Bright Armenia" party, wrote:

“Samvel Karapetyan and Archbishop Mikayel Ajapahyan are political prisoners by the criteria set by the PACE resolution.

Resolution 1900, adopted by the PACE in 2012, clearly defines who can be considered a political prisoner. According to these five criteria, a person is a political prisoner if his or her detention was carried out in violation of freedom of speech, belief or assembly, was carried out exclusively for political reasons, was the result of a disproportionate, discriminatory or unfair trial.

I present these criteria below:

a) if the detention was carried out in violation of any of the fundamental guarantees enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights and its protocols, in particular the freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression and information, and freedom of assembly and association.

b) if the arrest was made solely for political reasons, without being linked to any crime.

c) if the period or conditions of detention for political reasons are clearly disproportionate to the act for which the person is suspected or accused.

d) if the person was detained discriminatory compared to other persons for political reasons.

e) if the detention is the result of manifestly unfair procedures, which is related to the political motives of the authorities.

Based on these criteria, it is obvious that in the case of Samvel Karapetyan and Archbishop Mikayel, we are dealing with the very fact of political persecution. They are persecuted not for any crime, but for the opinions, interviews and views they expressed. The hasty two-year prison sentence against Archbishop Mikayel and the illegal criminal prosecution and detention of Samvel Karapetyan testify to the fact that a dangerous situation has developed in Armenia, through the silencing of voices against the policies pursued by the authorities and the violation of the values of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

"Combining these facts, we can clearly say that these cases are a clear indicator of democratic regression and a blatant violation of freedom of speech."