YEREVAN. – An amnesty proposal is important for the country especially now when penitentiaries are overcrowded, secretary of ARF Dashanaktsutyun parliamentary faction Aghvan Vardanyan told reporters.

“There are prisoners who had committed crimes and violations, but with proper work by Justice Ministry it would be more useful to grant amnesty, than to keep them in jail and make them пасс ‘prison traditions’ to the society,” he said.

Asked about existence of political prisoners in Armenia who may be released under an amnesty, Vardanyan noted that opposition activist Tigran Arakelyan may be viewed as a “political prisoner” under one provision out of five.