One of the criminal cases related to alleged torture is at court with an indictment

The Office of the Prosecutor General of Armenia continues its consistent criminal-legal struggle against the phenomena of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of citizens in police stations and other bodies. This is reported by the Prosecutor’s office of Armenia.

Specifically, the prosecutor overseeing the criminal case has confirmed the indictment regarding the alleged torture of Armen Agajanian by employees of the Nubarashen penitentiary institution, which was initiated on March 26, 2018, under part 2 of Article 309 of the RA Criminal Code, and the criminal case has been sent to the First Instance Court of General Jurisdiction in Yerevan for substantive examination.

The preliminary investigation established a sufficient combination of evidence indicating that on March 16, 2018, between 00:35 and 01:15, a group of employees of the Nubarashen penal institution subjected Armen Agajanian, who was in pre-trial detention, to torture with the intent of inflicting severe physical pain. Charges have been brought against two employees of the Nubarashen penal institution, including a former security officer, A.M., whose case was sent to court.

Earlier, on April 9, 2018, charges were also brought against another employee of the Nubarashen penitentiary, A.H., under part 4 of Article 309.1 and part 1 of Article 314 of the RA Criminal Code. A part of this case was separated and sent to court with an indictment on July 11, 2018. On November 26, 2019, although the court delivered a guilty verdict against A.H., it reclassified the charges brought under part 4 of Article 309.1, finding him guilty under Article 309, part 2 and Article 314, part 1 offenses, and released him from the courtroom based on the application of an act of amnesty.

The prosecuting attorney, considering the reclassification of charges by the first-instance court, which resulted in the defendant being exempted from serving a custodial sentence for the committed crime, appealed the verdict, which is now under review by the Court of Appeal of Armenia.

Simultaneously, based on the adoption of the amnesty law on April 8, 2020, a decision was made by the preliminary investigation body not to conduct criminal prosecution against two other employees of the Nubarashen penitentiary, H.N. and Y.A., under part 1 of Article 314 of the RA Criminal Code.

In addition to the aforementioned, in the criminal case regarding the torture of Zhora Simonyan on October 4, 2017, at the building of the Ijevan division of the Armenian Police, charges were brought against G. Mardanyan, the head of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ijevan division of the Tavush regional directorate of the police, under part 1 of Article 309.1 of the RA Criminal Code. The court of first instance of Tavush region rendered a verdict of acquittal based on the absence of a criminal act. The prosecution and the victim’s representative also filed an appeal against this verdict.

As a result of the review, the Court of Appeal of Armenia partially granted the appeal, overturned the verdict of the General Jurisdiction Court regarding G. Mardanyan, and sent the case back to the same court for re-examination.

It should be reminded that during 2019, there were 146 criminal cases investigated with signs of crimes stipulated in Articles 309.1, 309, part 2, and 341, part 2 of the RA Criminal Code, regarding illegal detention of citizens in police stations and other bodies, depriving them of their actual freedom, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, as well as other alleged human rights violations by officials. Five criminal cases involving charges against eight individuals were sent to court, which is almost twice as much compared to 2018.