Justice Minister visits correctional facility, meets life sentence inmates

YEREVAN, AUGUST 13, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan has visited the “Armavir” Correctional Facility to tour the prison and review its conditions.

MP Vladimir Vardanyan, the chairman of the parliamentary Committee on State-Legal Affairs and MP Maria Karapetyan, as well as Director of the Department for Corrections Artur Goyunyan accompanied the minister during the August 12 visit.

“Accompanied by Warden Gerasim Gevorgyan, the minister and the lawmakers were familiarized during the visit with the conditions of housing the inmates, the existing opportunities and problems for primary healthcare of convicts, the food preparation conditions and diet,” the Justice Ministry said in a news release.

Minister Badasyan also met with inmates serving life sentences who wanted to meet the Cabinet member. The inmates presented their concerns to the minister, which mostly referred to re-opening of their criminal cases, the proper implementation of the parole institute, clarification of the new regulation on being transferred to other types of correctional facilities, and probation issues.

Badasyan told the inmates that the justice ministry doesn’t have any jurisdiction on re-opening criminal cases, however regarding other issues which are in the domain of the ministry he assured to take appropriate actions to perfect the parole system and to make the regulation on transferring inmates to other types of facilities more flexible.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan