This is definitely political persecution: Nina Karapetyants on the arrest of Samsonyan and Saghatelyan

Human rights activist Nina Karapetyants believes that the arrest of Narek Samsonyan and Vazgen Saghatelyan, authors of the Imnemnimi podcast, has no legal justification and is purely political.

In an interview with Aysor.am, Karapetyants noted that, as a rule, it is difficult to give a clear assessment of detentions, since not all processes carried out during the preliminary investigation are publicly available. However, there are exceptional cases when the alleged act has already been completed.

“In the case of Narek Samsonyan and Vazgen Saghatelyan, what happened has already happened. The logic of keeping people in prison is zero. It is not possible to give any logical or legal assessment, except for political persecution,” the human rights activist said.

She emphasized that, although she does not share most of the views expressed by the two men, the legal assessment is clear:

“I have said it many times and I will repeat it now: I do not agree with the overwhelming majority of the boys’ thoughts, I do not share them. But from the point of view of legal assessment, this is definitely political persecution; there simply cannot be any other opinion.”

Karapetyants added that the individuals are being held in custody purely on a whim.

“This is not an innovation, but the so-called ‘reformed’ justice system has returned to the same logic that we have had for many years, which we have criticized and condemned,” she noted.

Regarding the indefinite hunger strike announced by Narek Samsonyan, Karapetyants called for it to be stopped.

“Not being in agreement with Narek on many issues and not being any authority for him, I must ask him to stop the hunger strike. He can really cause serious harm to his health. I don’t think anyone can doubt Narek’s principledness – this is not the issue, and this is not a method of struggle where a hunger strike would really be useful,” she said.

Karapetyants also emphasized that the current government and the justice system are indifferent to people.

“This government, its entire justice system, is deeply indifferent to people. People are just a resource for them, a voting population. And a person who definitely won’t vote for them is not interesting to them at all,” she stated.

According to her, Samsonyan has a struggle, ideas and goals, so it is important to maintain health.

“Narek has a struggle, has ideas and thoughts, therefore, in order to continue that struggle, he must at least be alive and healthy,” said Karapetyants.

Finally, she noted that the justice system has historically ignored hunger strikes.

“The justice system has had the following principle since time immemorial: they do not respond to hunger strikes, reasoning that if they suddenly respond to one, the entire system will resort to hunger strikes. They will not be able to provide solutions to these problems; therefore, hunger strikes are not acceptable for them in all situations. I think it would be more reasonable to stop the hunger strike, to have the strength and courage to fight for their ideas.”