30 Out of 581 Individuals Released Under Amnesty Commit New Crimes, Says Armen Ghukasian

“Out of the 581 individuals released under the amnesty declared by the National Assembly, 30 have committed 42 new crimes as of today, including 1 robbery and 28 thefts, 10 of which are residential burglaries,” said Armen Ghukasian, Chief of Staff of the Police of Armenia, during a meeting with reporters.

Commenting on the correlation between repeat offenses and amnesty, he noted that such a study was conducted by the police 10 years ago, and the results indicated an increase in crime in the following year after amnesty. “But this does not mean that this humanitarian step taken by the state towards offenders is a wrong approach. It is part of criminal policy, and such individuals should be kept under surveillance, yet, unfortunately, the current legislation does not fully provide for this possibility,” Ghukasian added.