Epress.am News from Armenia
Twenty-nine prisoners serving life sentences at Nubarashen Penitentiary stopped the hunger strike they began yesterday morning, reports the RA Ministry of Justice public relations department, noting that this occurred upon RA Minister of Justice Hovhannes Manukyan's appeal.
Note, the lifers are asking the authorities to review their cases and provide the option of parole.
In a statement released today, the justice ministry notes that it "consistently monitors the problems of prisoners sentenced to life; they are at the examination and mapping stage. In a short period of time, the problems will be summed up and the public informed of further action."
In recent years, the issue of prisoners sentenced to life has been raised repeatedly; however, significant steps have not been taken to address it.
The Civil Initiative to Support Prisoners Sentenced to Life has repeatedly said lifers in Armenia are not a homogenous group: there are differences such as the prisoner’s age at the time of the offense, whether he has any previous convictions, and so on. However, these circumstances are not taken into account and there are no relevant legislative differences.
In particular, in 2012, out of 104 lifers, 41 were imprisoned for murdering a single person, 26 of whom for which it was their first offense. Out of these 26, two have served 15 years of their sentence.
Out of 100 lifers, 15 were sentenced for crimes committed during their military service, when they were just 18–20 years old, while 59 were convicted for the murder of two or more people. The authorities, however, take none of this into account, thereby not providing opportunities for their cases to be reviewed.