YEREVA (RFE/RL)—President Serzh Sarkisian will declare next week an amnesty for opposition members and supporters arrested following Armenia’s disputed February 2008 presidential election, parliament speaker Hovik Abrahamian said on Thursday.
Abrahamian told RFE/RL that Sarkisian will make a statement to that effect on May 28, a national holiday. “It will be about a general amnesty and it will be on May 28,” he said.
The speaker, who is a leading member of Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia, did not specify whether the amnesty will apply to all 55 or so supporters of opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian remaining in prison. The vast majority of them have already been tried and sentenced on charges mainly stemming from the March 1, 2008 deadly clashes in Yerevan between security forces and opposition protesters challenging official vote results.
