Helsinki Association NGO is barred from visiting and monitoring penitentiaries of the RA Ministry of Justice which substantiated the decision by the fact that "the summary of results of the monitoring conducted by the NGO in 2010 had sparked objective discontent among convicts and detained, penitentiary administration and different layers of the society".     

Within the framework of the "Human Rights Situation in Armenia" project, the Helsinki Association NGO had sent a letter to the then minister of Justice Gevorg Danielyan with a request to allow monitoring in penitentiaries and had received a positive answer.

This year a similar letter sent to the current minister Hrair Tovmasyan was answered by Arsen Babayan, Head of the Public Relations Department of the Penitentiary Division of the Ministry of Justice of RA who found it "inexpedient" to carry out the monitoring for the above reasons adding that such monitoring is accomplished by an observers' group conducting public monitoring.

On March 31, 2011, Helsinki Association again applied to the Ministry of Justice to get additional explanations on the refusal; however, they have received no answer as of today and are planning to demand an answer judicially. Mikayel Danielyan, President of NGO, told the reporters about this a press conference organized on May 26.

According to Arsen Babayan, Head of the Public Relations Department of the Penitentiary Institutions Division of the Ministry of Justice of RA, after conducting the monitoring in 2010 the President of Helsinki Association did not consider it necessary to have any discussions with the penitentiary institution division to get official and professional explanations; and in case of revealing any shortcomings, the administration would have taken appropriate measures to eliminate them.

"The organization has adopted the policy of allegedly studying the situation but, in fact, distorting the reality, and publicized the results with the purpose of presenting fiction instead of reality," the announcement of the penitentiary institutions division reads.     

Danielyan says that according to his information, the Minister of Justice has decided to stop all kinds of monitoring in penitentiaries until September. "It is a gross violation of human rights," the human rights activist says. He believes that Haik Harutyunyan, Head of the Penitentiary Institution Department, is behind all these developments.

Danielyan believes that the ban concerns only their organization since the observers' group established to conduct public monitoring in penitentiary institutions and bodies adjacent to the Ministry of Justice "hasn't uttered a sound" so far.

Edmon Marukyan, member of the observers' group, told www.hra.am that "they had no information about the minister's decision and, hence, could not react". The group continues making daily visits to penitentiaries and the last one was made two days ago - on May 25, based on an alarm.     

Danielyan's information about the decision has been qualified as "another fabrication" by Arsen Babayan.

"It is disadvantageous for the Ministry of Justice and the authorities to see the real picture of prisons," Mikayel Danielyan explains the reason for the ban, regarding reports of observers' group as "insipid", "edited" and "advantageous" for authorities.

Edmon Marukyan calls Danielyan's announcement an "obvious lie": "Since 2004 our reports were published in the form they were written and presented to the Ministry of Justice. In accord with the accepted order, the Ministry has a right to present its interpretations that were published along with the report of our group. So the society sees what issues were raised by the group and how the ministry responded to them".

The President of Helsinki Association also accused the observers' group for being biased, allegedly responding and signing only the announcement about the bad conditions of detainment of  Tigran Postanjyan, Zaruhy Postanjyan's brother, and "keeping silent" about other cases. 

"First, the observers' group did not join the announcement as a group; only some member-organizations of the observers' group signed it. As for overcrowded prisons and inhuman treatment there, the member-organizations of observers' group had an announcement back in 2010 that was published in press. Members of the group use every opportunity to voice one more time their concern that overcrowded prisons is a problem and it leads to treatment that humiliates human dignity," Edmon Marukyan responded.

The President of Helsinki Association has announced that they can conduct monitoring and prepare reports even without visiting penitentiaries as they did in the past with the help of prisoner Arshaluys Hakobyan.

As for the general condition in penitentiaries, the human rights activist considers it as "unbearably bad" adding that "being in prison is equivalent to being subjected to tortures and inhuman treatment".

Mary Alexanyan

Source: www.hra.am