A key panel of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) has urged the Strasbourg-based body to impose sanctions on Armenia because of the continuing imprisonment of dozens of opposition members whom it for the first time described as “political prisoners.”
[…]
A new resolution drafted by the committee and made public on Thursday reads: “Notwithstanding positive developments in some areas, the Assembly finds it unacceptable that persons have been charged and deprived of their liberty for political motivations and that political prisoners exist in Armenia.”
[…]
The draft resolution says there are “strong indications” that these criminal cases were politically motivated. “It follows that persons convicted on these charges can be considered political prisoners,” it adds, rejecting Armenian government claims to the contrary. link

In their first report on the February 19 vote, a team of international observers mostly representing the OSCE concluded that it was conducted “mostly in accordance” with democratic standards. . The conclusion gave a major boost to the international legitimacy of Serzh Sarkisian’s controversial election win, even if the OSCE mission somewhat backtracked on it in its final report issued in May.
Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian, the main opposition presidential candidate, and his top aides have repeatedly charged that the observers’ initial findings effectively gave the Armenian authorities the green light to use lethal force against opposition protesters demanding a re-run of the vote. An opposition task force investigating the March 1 clashes in Yerevan arrived at the same conclusion in a report issued earlier this month.
Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, the OSCE’s secretary general, rejected the opposition criticism as he spoke at a news conference held in Yerevan after his talks with Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian. “Sometimes people get confused because they do not see that this [OSCE-led election observation] is not about saying whether an election is good or bad, whether it was free and fair or not,” he said. “This is about saying that an election has been a further stepping stone in a process of improving the implementation of the [OSCE] standards. And this happens, I can tell you, in all the elections which the OSCE is invited to monitor.”
“The reports which we produce are not tools to give good or bad marks, they are tools to work together in ensuring a continuous process of democratic consolidation and successful democratic transition,” added Brichambaut. link