Committees Granting Release On Parole Are Not Transparent
A1+ 08:26 pm | March 25, 2009 | society

On March 25 five human rights organizations issued the following
statement

We, the representatives of non-governmental organizations, express our
concern about the activities of "Independent committees on issues of
release on parole or replacement of the sentence with less strict
one".

Particularly the following problems are of a concern,

Exact standards are not defined in the documents regulating the
decision making process of the Committees,

Decisions of the Committees cannot be appealed,

Many members of the Committees, including heads of the Committees, are
members of defense and law enforcement agencies.

On March 20, 2009 the Committee responsible for "Abovyan",
"Nubarashen", "Vardashen", and "Erebuni" penitentiary institutions
discussed the issue of release on parole of a number of convicts,
including chief editor of "Zhamanak Yerevan" newspaper, Arman
Babajanyan. As one of the members of the Committee, attorney Nikolay
Baghdasaryan has stated, according to the protocol of a secret ballot,
4 members voted for A. Babajanyan’s release on parole, and 3 voted
against. But later it was announced that 2 members voted for and 5
members against the motion to release A. Babajanyan on parole.

This situation shows once more that the Committees operate in a
non-transparent and bias way. Particularly, this is obvious by the
decisions made about granting A. Babajanyan release on parole. This
time the decision was made in suspicious conditions, which gives some
grounds to believe that the denial had a political basis.

We, undersigned NGOs, demand:

To revise the legislation which regulates activities of Committees
granting release on parole To revise the issue of release on parole of
Arman Babajanyan and provide impartial, transparent and truthful
decision making process.

"Helsinki Committee of Armenia" NGO
Avetik Ishkhanyan

"Civil Society Institute" NGO
Arman Danielyan

"Against Violation of Law" NGO
Michael Aramyan

"Cooperation for Democracy Centre" NGO
Stepan Danielyan

"Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor" NGO
Arthur Sakunts