Armenian Justice Ministry has to Change its Tactics, Says Prison Monitoring Group

The Public Observers Group monitoring penal institutions and agencies of the Ministry of Justice is displeased with the treatment by the Ministry of Justice, members of the group said at a public discussion meeting today.

Representatives of the group mentioned that the Ministry of Justice hasn’t yet provided a proper response to the issues they raised.

“This discussion has one goal and that’s not to criticize the justice ministry, but to draw your attention to the fact that the observers’ group has a mechanism for urgent accountability and the ministry finally has to begin examining the issues at hand,” said head of the observers’ group Artur Sakunts.

“During this entire time, the issues we raised haven’t been properly analyzed. The ministry’s response has always been the issues you’ve raised haven’t been proven by our analysis or the treatment [of prisoners] has been within the boundaries of the law,” said Public Observers Group member, attorney Edmund Marukyan.

Sharing about 20 cases included in their report, Marukyan said the group’s activities were obstructed particularly at Artik penitentiary — they weren’t allowed to go inside. Another time, they weren’t allowed to meet with a lifer who began a hunger strike in Nubarashen penitentiary, though the prison chief agreed to speak with the observers’ group and thus, the group heard only one side of the story.

The ministry has to change its tactics to examine these cases, Marukyan added. For example, interrogating a prisoner who was tortured shouldn’t take place in the presence of the man who beat him. Such an incident was recorded, for example, in the penitentiary in Vanadzor in northern Armenia.

“We received a call that all the prisoners of a single cell were beaten. [Public Observers] Group members found signs of beating and bruises on those men — the group found that this ill-treatment was disproportionate. Then those prisoners refuted the testimonies they gave earlier because they were interrogated in the presence of the penitentiary chief who beat them,” said Marukyan.