In its new report on Armenia published today, the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) noted positive developments in the treatment of life-sentenced prisoners, but pointed out remaining problems with ill-treatment in the police custody, understaffing and lack of meaningful activities for inmates. The response of the Armenian government was published together with the report.

While the decreased number of allegations of police ill-treatment in detention suggests an improvement in this area, there are indications that this problem has not been entirely eradicated. In this respect, the CPT identified a number of deficiencies in the procedure for recording injuries of detainees.

The CPT recommends that the Special Investigation Service be significantly reinforced in terms of operational staff, in order to no longer need to rely on local police officers. Legal safeguards against ill-treatment, although effectively operating, do not cover situations when persons are “invited” to come to the police for “informal talks”, but have to stay there for hours and even days before being formally declared a criminal suspect. The visit to the military detention facilities in Yerevan revealed an extremely poor offer of activities, which, coupled with the problems in providing adequate psychiatric and psychological assistance, made it clear that the isolator was not a suitable place for prolonged detention. (more...)