The opposition-led Armenian National Congress (HAK) has released a statement condeming recent moves of the ruling regime as a "bag of tricks" designed to allow the authorities to circumvent its obligation to release political prisoners and not to be stripped of its PACE voting rights. The statement goes on to describe the actions taken by the regime, especially within the past month, as a last-ditch attempt to wrest pardon petitions from the political prisoners in order to show PACE that progress in the matter is being made. In the words of the HAK statement, after the failure of this immoral plan, President Sargsyan turned to another cunning device, out and out deception, when he signed the pardons of 16 individuals on January 23. According to HAK, none on this list, had ever been charged with "firearms or ammunition" crimes, as alleged by President Sargsyan in his pardon. In fact, HAK states that only two of the sixteen individuals had been included in the list of the sixty political prisoners presently in jail. The other fourteen, according to the statement, had been arrested on robbery charges.