The General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Armenia continues the criminal fight against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment toward citizens in the divisions of Police and other institutions.

 

In particular, the criminal case initiated against the employees of Nubarashen Penitentiary Institution under Article 309, Part 2 of the RA Criminal Code for torture toward Aghajanyan on March 26, 2018 was confirmed by the prosecutor in charge of the criminal case and the case initiated and investigated at the Special Investigation Service of the Republic of Armenia was sent to the Court of First Instance of Yerevan City for examination on the merits.

 

With a sufficient combination of evidence obtained from the preliminary investigation, it was substantiated that during the period started from 00:35 to 01:15 on 16 March 2018 a group of employees of the same penitentiary institution tortured Armen Aghajanyan, who was a pre-trial detainee, for his actions in Nubarashen Penitentiary Institution causing severe physical pain.

 

Two employees from Nubarashen Penitentiary Institution have been charged for committing the mentioned criminal acts; the case regarding A. M., a former employee of the security department, was sent to court.

 

Earlier, on April 9, 2018 A. H., employee of Nubarashen Penitentiary Institution was charged too under Article 309.1, Part 2, Point 4 of the RA Criminal Code regarding this a part was separated from the criminal case on July 11, 2018 and sent to court with an indictment.

 

To this end, though the court filed an indictment against A. H. on November 26, 2019, the court reset the charge under Article 309.1, Part 2, Point 4, charging him under Article 309, Part 2, and Article 314, Part 1 of the Criminal Code and on the basis of the application of the amnesty act he was released from the courtroom.

 

The prosecuting prosecutor, considering the re-qualification of the charge by the Court of First Instance as ungrounded, in the result of which the defendant was released from serving the sentence of real imprisonment for the crime committed, brought an appeal against the verdict, which was accepted by the RA Criminal Court of Appeal.

 

At the same time, on the basis of passing the Law on Amnesty the preliminary investigation body made a decision on April 8, 2020, on not prosecuting H. N and Y. A., other two employees of Nubarashen Penitentiary Institution under Article 314, Part 1 of the RA Criminal Code.

 

In addition to the above, regarding the criminal case initiated on the case of the torture toward Zhora Simonyan, tortured at Ijevan Division of the RA Police on October 4, 2017, a charge was filed against G. Mardanyan, the head of the Criminal Investigation Department of Ijevan Division of Tavush Regional Department of the RA Police, acquittal indictment was filed by the Court of First Instance of General Jurisdiction of Tavush Region due to lack of corpus delicti. An appeal was filed by the prosecutor and the representative of the victim. In the result of the investigation, the RA Criminal Court of Appeal partially upheld the appeal with its decision; the verdict of the Court of General Jurisdiction regarding G. Mardanyan was overturned and sent to the same court for a new trial.

 

We would like to remind that during 2019, 146 criminal cases were investigated on the grounds of crimes under Articles 309.1, 309, Part 2 and Article 341, Part 2 of the RA Criminal Code for keeping the citizens illegally at the police stations and other institutions and, for depriving them from liberty, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment for other alleged violations of human rights. Five criminal cases against 8 people have been sent to court, which is nearly twice much compared with 2018.