“While it is too early to give a full assessment of the effects of the changes to articles 225 and 300 of the Criminal Code of Armenia, the first signals give reason for optimism,” stated the two co-rapporteurs on Armenia after the discussions that took place last week in Strasbourg in the Monitoring Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) on the recent political developments in Armenia.

According to this week’s report on the Assembly’s official website (http://assembly.coe.int), George Colombier and John Prescott were especially satisfied that ‘the problematic charges’ under articles 300 (“Usurpation of State power”) and the old 225-3 (“mass disorder accompanied by murder”) have been dropped by the prosecution in the cases against seven opposition members that are currently in the Courts.