Since 2008 5 persons were sentenced under article of torture (article 119 of Criminal Code of Armenia): 2 of them were later granted amnesty, and means of coercion of medical nature was applied to the third one. According to Caucasus Regional Director of Penal Reform International (PRI) Tsira Chanturia in Georgia and in Armenia there are many cases when people commit torture but are not punished for it.

According to her, impunity rules since the cases of torture do not get equivalent legal estimation. "Each case should be investigated in a proper and objective manner. Investigations should be conducted by an independent authority, such as Special Investigative Service. All the evidence should be gathered, including the medical documentation about the consequences of torture and ill treatment, after which those government officials, who committed it, should be charged under the right article. This would be a solution to the impunity problem", says Tsira Chanturia.

Member of the UN Sub-committee on Preventing of Torture and President of Civil Society Institute NGO Arman Danielyan mentions that the definition of torture in the RA Criminal Code doesn't correspond to the definition of the UN Convention on the Prevention of Torture. The torture according to the convention is the physical or psychological violence towards a citizen committed by an official with the aim to get confession or other information, etc. According to the RA legislation, torture can occur between citizens as well. According to Arman Danielyan this makes the situation difficult and it becomes hard to differentiate between two types of crimes. "As a result officials, who commit torture, are sentenced under other articles, such as abuse of power, etc.

"Very few government officials are punished under the article of torture or ill treatment as a result of commiting or giving permission to commit acts of torture. If there are after all officials, who are brought to justice, they are brought under different articles, such as abuse or exceeding of power, etc. In very rare cases, and I can't even remember now a recent case in 2010 or 2011, was there somebody charged under the article of torture", says Tsira Chanturia.

According to her there is also problem with impunity in Azerbaijan, however, no statistics is available about the offenders who were brought to justice under the article of torture.

"In our region if in one case the investigation goes relatively normal, in other cases either the proper and thourough investigation is not conducted, or the outcome is not know, that is, maybe the investigation is conducted but whether the perpetrators were brought to justice or not, this remains a question", stresses the PRI Regional Director.

Arman Danielyan supports the reduction of the numbers of torture instead of having increase in the number of convicts under the article of torture. "I am for preventing tortures. It is easier to prevent rather than eliminate the consequences. In this case courts play a huge role".

According to Danielyan, the main reason for torture in Armenia is the process of obtaining confession by force and sentencing the person based on this confession. "Today even if the person enters the court and states that he was tortured and therefore he refuses from his confession, still the basis for the conviction is the confession obtained by torture. Therefore, if the courts didn't accept these confessions, this would completely change the situation" mentions Danielyan.

The expert sees one more method as a way to eliminate torture. That is eradicating the practice of racing for the highest percentage of revelation of criminal cases. "It is considered in our system, that the higher the percentage of disclosed crimes of one policeman or police department is, the higher the productivity of that policeman or department is. And for reaching these high rates, policemen use the easiest way- torture, for getting confession and increasing the number of revealed cases", says Mr. Danielyan, adding that eradication of such practice could also reduce the number of torture in our country.

Tsira Chanturia also mentions that it is important to carry out the investigation in all places of detention, either in police, or prison, or mental health hospital or army units, wherever the people are deprived of their liberty, in order to reveal cases of torture. "However, for having a positive result also political will is needed on the part of Armenian authorities", adds Ms. Chanturia.

Sofia Manukyan

Source: www.hra.am