Minister of Justice asserts: There are no, there were never political  prisoners in Armenia

ArmInfo.There are no  political prisoners in Armenia. This point of view is followed by  Minister of Justice of Armenia David Harutyunyan.

 On the question,  does he think that the verdict to the hero of the Karabakh war  Zhirayr Sefilyan is really politically motivated taking into account  the severe punishment that he received, the Minister of Justice  stated that as a member of the executive power, especially as the  Minister of Justice, he has no right to respond to such a question.  "Who decides, severe punishment or not? I would like to ask this  question to you, and that you answered it yourself." In my opinion,  there are two approaches: One approach is when you personally decide  that this punishment is severe, and for yourself You consider that a  person is a political prisoner, and another approach is when a state  system in which a three-level court system operates is acting, "the  head of the Ministry of Justice of Armenia told Radio Azatutyun.

According to him, the purpose of the three-level judicial system is  to punish the convicted person in accordance with the policy in this  area.

Commenting on the fact that human rights activists published a list  of those they consider political prisoners, David Harutyunyan said  that he also saw the lists published by international organizations  in which Naira Hunanyan, the chief convict in the 1999 massacre in  the Armenian parliament, is also considered a political prisoner.

Recall that the Capital Court of General jurisdiction at a meeting on  March 20, sentenced the hero of the Karabakh war Zhirayr Sefilyan to  10.5 years of imprisonment. Gevorg Safaryan, who is in the same case,  was sentenced to 5 years in prison, and Nerses Poghosyan, Hrayr  Topchyan, Galust Grigoryan, Sasunik Kirakosyan and Hovhannes  Nikoghosyan received 4 years in prison. Zhirayr Sefilyan, the hero of  the Karabakh war, known for his opposition activity, co-founder of  the "New Armenia" Front, was detained on June 20, 2016 on suspicion  of organizing a criminal group. 

Then he was charged with the illegal acquisition, possession and use  of weapons and ammunition. Sefilyan himself qualified this trial as a  political reprisal. Numerous violations of the law in the course of  the trial in the case of Sefilyan were also revealed by international  experts. Public organizations of the Diaspora also supported  Sefilyan. Some human rights activists and opposition politicians  called this verdict a revenge on the part of President Serzh Sargsyan  for the fact that after a four-day war in Karabakh in April 2016,  Sefilyan was the first to raise the issue of territorial losses from  the Armenian side.