ARMENIA TO TACKLE POLICE TORTURE
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #771
March 25 2015
Human rights defenders sceptical that laws alone will change practice
of coercing suspects to confess.
Nune Hovsepyan Armenia is planning to change the law to redefine
torture in a way that meets international standards and makes it
easier for police officers to be prosecuted.
IWPR has learned that the criminal code will be amended in line with
the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and will set out a prison term
of four to eight years for offenders.
A statement sent to IWPR by the Armenian justice ministry underlined
that the legislation was still under review by other government
agencies so was far from finalised, but in its present form it would
require the state to pay victims compensation of three million drams
(around 6,000 US dollars).
A wide-ranging study by the Civil Society Institute called Torture in
Armenia 2013-2014 found that the use of torture was commonest in the
police force, as a way of extracting confessions from suspects. Bail
is rarely granted so suspects can be held in pre-trial detention
for months. There are plans to change the use of custody as the
default measure, but it has not happened yet. (See Armenia to Reform
Detention Rules.)
According to the Civil Society Institute’s head, Arman Danielyan,
“If torture is eliminated in Armenia, the police here won’t be able
to solve a single crime. They currently lack the professional skills
and the technical means to do so.”
In a report last year, the office of Armenia’s human rights ombudsman
listed the commonest torture methods as beatings with plastic bottles
filled with water, suffocation using polythene bags, and handcuffs –
all things that cause pain but leave no physical trace.
Armenia’s constitution prohibits torture, and the current criminal code
also bans it, although at the moment, the victim must file a complaint
against the perpetrator before the authorities will investigate. This
is at odds with the UN convention, which requires states to investigate
cases whenever there are reasonable grounds for suspicion.
The proposed amendments would rectify this.
As they are public officials, police and others are generally
prosecuted under separate criminal code provisions relating to abuse
of power. Figures from Armenia’s prosecution service indicate that
even these milder offences rarely get to court. Of the 82 complaints
filed last year, 68 resulted in criminal cases but only one involving
“abuse of office” went to trial.
In a report published earlier this month, the Council of Europe
(CoE) commissioner for human rights, Nils Muižnieks explained that
the criminal code’s definition of torture “does not encompass crimes
committed by public officials, but only those by individuals acting
in a private capacity”.
“As a consequence, no law enforcement agent or member of the security
services has ever been convicted of the crime of torture in Armenia.
If police officials and investigators are at all held accountable for
resorting to ill-treatment, the charges and convictions are for lesser
offences, i.e. abuse of authority or exceeding official powers. On
several occasions, persons thus convicted have been granted amnesty,”
the report said.
Lusine Sahakyan, a lawyer who represents torture victims, told IWPR
that “even when the police prepare documentation on torture cases and
the Special Investigation Service [police oversight body] initiates
a criminal case, we know right from the outset that the case will
later be closed, because the judicial system is not generally ready
to curb mistreatment”.
One high-profile case Sahakyan is handling is about to get even more
publicity as it has just been submitted to the European Court of Human
Rights. This is the case of Argishti Kiviryan, a lawyer and coordinator
of the Armenia Today website. He failed to get domestic courts to
hear his complaint that he was beaten up in a police car during a
demonstration. Instead, he was prosecuted for attacking the police.
Sahakyan says this case is by no means unique. Another problem
she noted was that the relatives of suspects were often detained,
mistreated and subjected to heavy psychological pressure.
As well as Muižnieks’s report based on his October trip to Armenia,
the CoE’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture reported on poor
practice following a May 2014 visit.
Like Sahakyan, Danielyan believes the annual reports put out by the
committee suggest there has been no progress.
The ombudsman’s office has recommended a number of practical reforms
such as installing CCTV in interrogation rooms and ensuring that
testimony extracted by torture cannot be used in court.
A new Criminal Procedures Code is currently before parliament is
supposed to address some of the issues, but Sahakyan believes it is
not the answer, either.
“Judges really need to do their jobs. They must stop ruling out
prosecutions for torture, and they must act in a consistent manner
when they are alerted to torture cases,” Sahakyan said. “If happens,
then believe me, both prosecutors and police will be forced to operate
within the law.”
Nune Hovsepyan is a freelance journalist in Armenia.
https://iwpr.net/global-voices/armenia-tackle-police-torture