Epress.am News from Armenia
In its 2010 report, Armenia’s Helsinki Association for Human Rights touched upon the activities of the courts and penal institutions. Having monitored 130 criminal cases, the association found that not only domestic, but also international norms were violated in a number of cases.
Helsinki Association attorney Nina Karapetyants, as an example, cited the fact that a judge can examine a witness without the witness showing any identification, considering it sufficient only that the prosecutor says he recognizes the witness.
According to Karapetyants, also a serious issue is that incriminating conclusions presented by prosecutors are reprinted in judges’ rulings.
Helsinki Association representative Arsen Babayan, speaking about the conditions of Armenia’s penal institutions, said “the situation here is determinedly difficult.”
During 2010, said Babayan, there was a recorded increase in corruption in prisons. He noted that people pay upwards of $1,000 for being admitted to the central prison hospital.
“The situation of patients, those who were scattered into prison communities after new penitentiary chief Hayk Harutyunyan came, is quite serious. Many patients complain that their situation is dire and no one pays attention to them, while the hospital is in a semi-empty state,” he said.
Prison communities are in destroyed and dilapidated conditions, according to Babayan, and if before they said penal institutions should be renovated, now they think, the prison buildings have to be torn down and new ones built in their place.
According to the Helsinki Association spokesperson, the only “normal” penal institution that’s in good condition and is well renovated is Artik penitentiary.
“The situation in Nubarashen penitentiary, where 20 inmates are kept in one cell who take turns sleeping, is very bad. When the monitoring group was entering the cell, we found bed bugs on us. There were a great many bottles in the cells. A serious problem is the issue of water, since water is restricted [to certain times of the day, for a certain length of time] and for that, they provide different explanations,” he said.
PINK Armenia (Public Information and Need of Knowledge) NGO, who live tweeted during the event, added that one reason why the water in prisons is restricted is because a sauna was built next door, which consumes more water than the prison.
Babayan also noted that another serious issue is getting information from penal institutions: after much difficulty, the association found out that 38 people died in prisons in Armenia in 2010 — 32 from illness, one from an unfortunate accident, and 5 committed suicide. Further, according to the report, in Armenia’s prisons, there are 47 people with TB and 22 who are HIV+.
In addition, said Babayan, also in a bad state are prison employees, who get paid very little, and there are few new recruits.