Amnesty International Report 2003 - Armenia

Covering events from January - December 2002

REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
Head of state: Robert Kocharian
Head of government: Andranik Markarian
Death penalty: retentionist
International Criminal Court: signed

Reports of torture and ill-treatment by law enforcement officers continued, together with complaints about the brutal bullying of conscripts. The authorities continued to imprison conscientious objectors to military service. A new criminal code failed to abolish the death penalty. At least 42 men were reportedly under sentence of death at the end of 2002, although the moratorium on executions continued.

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Background

Nationwide local elections were held in October and were generally described as progressive rather than free and fair. The Prime Minister's party won a landslide victory. President Kocharian described the elections as a step towards orderly presidential elections in February 2003. However, political life continued to be marked by violence and by central control of the media and restrictions on freedom of expression.

Torture and ill-treatment

Reports indicated that ill-treatment by law enforcement officials remained commonplace. Military conscripts continued to be treated brutally by superior officers or with their complicity. It was alleged that a number of investigations into cases of torture or ill-treatment were inadequate.

• In February, 22-year-old Artiom Sarkisian died shortly after beginning his military service. The military hospital stated that the cause of death was food poisoning, but a later autopsy reportedly revealed severe brain and abdominal injuries and loss of blood. A trial started in December in which 15 people faced charges in connection with his death. They included fellow soldiers, two of whom were accused of assault, and the unit commander. Five military doctors, according to whom Artiom Sarkisian was suffering from food poisoning, were also accused of complicity in his death. Artiom Sarkisian allegedly spent 36 hours in agonizing pain until a sixth military doctor sent him to hospital. In 2001, Artiom Sarkisian had taken part in highly publicized student protests against compulsory military service before the completion of studies. His relatives claimed to have been intimidated at the trial, which was adjourned at the end of 2002 because of the absence of heating in the court.
• In July, parliamentary deputy Gevorg Hakobian was reported to have been physically assaulted in police custody by a number of law enforcement officials, including a senior figure in the Yerevan police. An internal government investigation conducted by the Prime Minister exonerated the senior official, who was promoted a month later to head a department in the Interior Ministry.
• Agamal Artiunian, one of President Kocharian's bodyguards, was given a two-year suspended sentence for "unintentionally assaulting" political activist Pogos Pogosian in September 2001. Pogos Pogosian was found dead in the toilet of the "Aragast" café in Yerevan after being beaten by Agamal Artiunian. This followed an incident in the café in which Pogos Pogosian allegedly made a disrespectful remark to the President.

Prisoners of conscience

There was still no sign during 2002 of Armenia acting in the spirit of its commitments to the Council of Europe (see below) with regard to conscientious objectors to compulsory military service. By mid-December, prison sentences of between one and three years had been imposed during the year on at least 16 men, all Jehovah's Witnesses, as a result of their conscientious objection. Five more had been arrested and were awaiting trial. A further 10 had been released after serving part of their sentences. Two of these 10 were serving their second such prison sentence. As a condition of their release, they had to report regularly to the police.

Council of Europe

When Armenia joined the Council of Europe in January 2001 it made a series of human rights commitments.

During 2002 Armenia ratified the European Convention on Human Rights, although Protocol No. 6, which abolishes the death penalty except in time of war, was not submitted to parliament for ratification. Armenia also ratified the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. This authorizes the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) to visit all places of detention in Armenia; the CPT conducted its first visit in October.

A new criminal code was given a first reading in parliament in June and a second reading in December. The new code decriminalized homosexual relations between consenting adults. However, despite Armenia's commitments to the Council of Europe to abolish the death penalty by 25 January 2002, the new code provided for the death penalty for aggravated murder, rape of a minor girl, and terrorist acts, committed before the code came into effect. This was believed to be linked to the trial of five people charged with carrying out an armed attack in the Armenian parliament in 1999 in which eight people, including the Prime Minister and the Speaker, were killed.

In August, the committee monitoring Armenia's membership of the Council of Europe visited the country. On the basis of the committee's report, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) called in September for the complete abolition of the death penalty in Armenia without any exceptions or restrictions. PACE also noted that it might decide to withdraw the credentials of the Armenian parliamentary delegation should Armenia fail to abolish the death penalty by June 2003. The monitoring committee had indicated that, given the help provided by Council of Europe experts, abolition could be incorporated into the new criminal code for its second reading. However, on 25 December the code was given its second reading unaltered on this point.

Despite a de facto moratorium on executions, the number of prisoners condemned to death rose to at least 42 by early October.

Armenia's commitments to the Council of Europe include the adoption by January 2004 of a law on an alternative to military service, and in the meantime pardons for all imprisoned conscientious objectors. A draft law was under consideration in 2002 which provided for unarmed military service but not for an alternative civilian service as required by the Council of Europe.