YEREVAN. – There are no political prisoners in Armenia, Justice Minister Hovhannes Manukyan stated at Monday’s Facebook press conference by the RFE/RL Armenian service.

In his words, no political report by any human rights monitoring organization, or country, records the presence of political prisoners in Armenia.

To the remark that activist Shant Harutyunyan and Karabakh war veteran Volodya Avetisyan are behind bars for conducting political activities, the minister responded: “Politics and criminal law are different things. A person can be a participant in some political process and, by being a participant, he may allow for violations which can be classified as unlawful and criminally liable within the logic of the Criminal Code.”