Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor

Back on December 4, 2019, HCA Vanadzor submitted a crime report to the RA Prosecutor General’s Office, based on statements made by Shushi penitentiary institution former convicts on having been subjected to violence in the penitentiary institution. Almost two months have passed, but all that the RA Prosecutor General’s Office did was to send an inquiry on that matter to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Artsakh.  

Whereas, Shushi penitentiary institution former convicts Roman Babayan, in a conversation with “Hetq”, and Tigran Ohanjanyan, in a conversation with “CivilNet”, told about the illegalities of the administration, degrading treatment to convicts, violence and torture. The RA Prosecutor General’s Office was supposed to discuss the report immediately and make a decision by the Criminal Procedure Code in a 10-day timeframe. In both cases, it was about the prevention of cruel and inhuman treatment to RA citizens for years on end and the struggle against that vicious phenomenon. 

On December 27, 2019, having been informed about the inquiries sent to Artsakh Prosecutor General’s Office, HCA Vanadzor applied to the RA Prosecutor General for the second time, to understand what provision of the RA legislation guided the RA Prosecutor General’s Office to send an inquiry to Prosecutor General’s Office of Artsakh instead of urgently discussing the crime report.

By the note dated January 13, 2020, the RA Prosecutor General’s Office responded that according to Article 15 of the RA Criminal Code, Artsakh citizens may be made liable in the RA if they have not been made liable in Artsakh. And the inquiry was sent to Artsakh Prosecutor’s Office to find this out.  

Factually, instead of conducting an immediate investigation into the case of alleged violation of the right to be free from torture and degrading treatment, it sufficed the RA Prosecutor General’s Office to just send an inquiry to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Artsakh and “patiently” wait for the response for one and a half months. There is also no information why the Prosecutor General’s Office delays the response.