Ashot Manukyan
Ashot Manukyan, already 24 years in prison, was released on parole. The Criminal Court of Appeal Judge Mnatsakan Harutyunyan made an unprecedented decision and quashed the decision of the Court of First Instance.
The court set a 10-year probation period.
Ashot Manukyan is an exceptional convict who was forgiven by the parents of the killed soldiers.
Ashot Manukyan has been in prison since 1996. He was charged and convicted for killing three servicemen, two of whom were brothers. During both the preliminary investigation and the trial, he testified that he fired on three soldiers and that the reason was a debt dispute. Manukyan was condemned to death by execution, but in 2003, under President Robert Kocharyan’s decree, death penalty was replaced with life imprisonment.
The life-sentenced prisoner did not remain idle in prison. Today Manukyan marked his second year with honors at the Urartu University School of Psychology and Pedagogy and is passed to the third year. After his release, he will be provided with a job. He got married during the imprisonment years.
In the history of independent Armenia, Ashot Manukyan was the second life-sentenced prisoner who was released on parole not based on health problems.