Samvel Karapetyan and Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan are Political Prisoners According to PACE Resolution Criteria

The 2012 Resolution No. 1900, adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), clearly defines who may be considered a political prisoner. According to the five criteria established therein, a person is recognized as a political prisoner if their deprivation of liberty occurred in violation of freedom of expression, belief, or assembly; if it was caused solely by political motives; if the punitive measures were disproportionate; if the deprivation of liberty was discriminatory; or if it resulted from an unfair trial motivated by the political interests of the authorities.

The criteria are provided below:

a) if the detention has been imposed in violation of one of the fundamental guarantees set out in the European Convention on Human Rights and its Protocols (ECHR), in particular freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression and information, freedom of assembly and association;

b) if the detention has been imposed for purely political reasons without connection to any offence;

c) if, for political motives, the length of the detention or its conditions are clearly out of proportion to the offence the person has been found guilty of or is suspected of;

d) if, for political motives, he or she is detained in a discriminatory manner as compared to other persons; or,

e) if the detention is the result of proceedings which were clearly unfair and this appears to be connected with political motives of the authorities.

Based on these criteria, it is evident that in the cases of Samvel Karapetyan and His Grace Mikael (Vladyka Mikael), we are dealing with political persecution. They are being persecuted not for committing crimes, but for their expressed views, interviews, and publicly stated positions. The immediate two-year prison sentence handed down to His Grace Mikael, as well as the illegal criminal prosecution and incarceration of Samvel Karapetyan, testify to the formation of a dangerous situation in Armenia: the suppression of dissenting voices, the violation of human rights, and the trampling of the values of democracy and the rule of law.

The totality of these facts allows us to assert with full confidence that these cases are a clear indicator of democratic regression and an open violation of freedom of speech.