Azernews.Az

By Sabina Idayatova

Armenian judicial system is in need of major reforms, human rights defender Karen Andreasyan said while speaking of poor conditions in Armenia's penitentiaries at the press-conference held on July 4.

Andreasyan said that atmosphere of indifference to the prisoners reigns in Armenia, particularly in penal institutions.

"For instance, in Nubarashen penitentiary there were 17 prisoners in a ward of 25 square meters, and the number of beds was 10-12. So, the prisoners have to sleep in turn. Similar overcrowding was registered in Vardeshan penitentiary, wherein there were six people in a ward of 12 square meters," arminfo.info website reported.

Andreasyan further qualified the general conditions in penitentiaries as unsatisfactory, saying that in Nubarashen penitentiary most of the wards are damp, and the conditions are unhygienic.

According to Andreasyan, the Ombudsman's office staff, with the support of the British Embassy in Armenia carried out more than 130 visits to the metropolitan and provincial penitentiaries, police stations and military units, hospitals, children's homes and boarding schools in the first quarter of this year.

Ombudsman also noted that the problems of this sector emerges due to three reasons, including the lack of funds allocated from the state budget to reforms, corruption, and shortcomings of the criminal law, which hinders improvement of the situation in this field, and worsens the situation.

"The fact that, unlike other countries, prisoners in Armenia complain of the bad judiciary system rather than the administration of prisons is amazing", he said.

The human rights activist also noted that the Armenian government should allocate to the Ombudsman office some 15 million drams to conduct detailed studies. (1 USD = 412.2502 AMD)

Andreasyan noted that the British Embassy have allocated about 11 million drams for the implementation of recent visits.

In her turn, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom to Armenia Katherine Jane Leach noted that alternative methods of punishment should be introduced in Armenia.

"I think that, at first, the prisoners should be granted a new building, which will facilitate unloading of penitentiary. Moreover, I think that prison is really makes a bad person even worse, and this mechanism of punishment in some cases should be replaced by alternative methods," the Ambassador noted.

There were 12 correctional facilities in Armenia by December, 2012, and almost all of them are overcrowded. In particular, 4,697 prisoners were kept in 12 facilities designed for 4,391 people as of February 2012.