Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor

On September 11, 2019, having forbidden the RF citizen A. Kamayev to leave the RA for two months, General Department of Criminal Investigation of the RA Police informed the Human Rights Defender’s Office that A. Kamayev could leave the RA since September 11. The General Department of Criminal Investigation of the RA Police did not give any further comments explaining the reason. 

Before that, on July 7, 2019, after crossing the RA border, A. Kamayev was arrested. However, he was not provided with a document in a language he could understand on the grounds of the arrest. Later, the RA Police announced that he had not committed any crime in the RA, therefore there were no grounds to deprive him of liberty. However, on the same day, when A. Kamayev tried to leave the RA territory, he was not allowed to do so reasoning that he was wanted in the RF. The same happened on July 28, 2019, when he tried to cross the border on Yerevan-Batumi train. Having been kept at the checkpoint for three hours, he was sent back to Armenia.  

On July 29, A. Kamayev applied to HCA Vanadzor for the protection of his rights. On the same day, A. Sakunts, HCA Vanadzor Chairman, applied to the National Security Service to find out the reason for what had happened and what actions were required for A. Kamayev to leave the RA. H. Karumyan, Head of NSS department, directed to apply to the RA Police, because the data on being wanted is entered into the Border Electronic Management Information System by the Police. 

After applying to the RA Police information center, HCA Vanadzor has not received answers to those questions yet. It was only presented on what grounds his data had been included in the database of wanted persons. 

And on September 11, 2019, the General Department of Criminal Investigation of the RA Police informed the RA Human Rights Defender that A. Kamayev could leave the Republic of Armenia. They did not comment as to what had changed and what served as the ground for such a decision. Moreover, to the query made by HCA Vanadzor they responded that A. Kamayev was wanted in the RF and that in this case the data were automatically included in the RA Police database and then in the Border Electronic Management Information System. However, days after it, they make a different decision and do not inform HCA Vanadzor about it. Instead, they only inform the Human Rights Defender, who, too, had dealt with that matter. 

In these conditions, when the RA Police did not find it necessary to inform the person how his data were entered into and then removed from the System, it is not clear whether those actions were grounded or not. 

On September 14, 2019, HCA Vanadzor applied to the RA Police Chief to find out on what grounds A. Kamayev’s data had been included in the Border Electronic Management System and on what grounds and under what conditions they had been removed. No response has been received from the Police so far.