ArmInfo. The Office of the RA Human Rights Defender has issued a statement on the problem of recording torture of and violence against inmates of Armenia's penitentiaries.
Monitoring conducted by the Human Rights Defender proved the corrupt practice of not recording traumas during medical examination of inmates. The Office the RA Human Rights Defender has received numerous complaints.
The Office recorded such violations at the Abovyan penitentiary and Armavir penitentiary.
In its turn, the RA Ministry of Justice explains that relevant records are included in the inmates' personal records.
"The Human Rights Defender points out that this fact can by no means be the basis for the staff of the Penitentiary Medical Center not drawing up relevant records and not sending them to law-enforcers.
"Properly recording any bodily injuries of inmates in their being admitted to penitentiaries is mandatory as such persons remain in custody even on their way to the penitentiary," the statement reads.
The Office the RA Human Rights Defender has denounced the unprofessional or incomplete recording of traumas received by inmates, thee practice of not providing medical opinions on the nature and causes of traumas received by inmates, not sending the relevant records of alleged violence to law-enforcers. In its annual reports, the Office the RA Human Rights Defender raises the problems, with detailed analyses and proposal to resolve them.
"Once more we are calling on Armenia's Ministry of Justice and other authorities to strictly supervise the mechanisms of properly recording of instances of alleged torture and violence thereby ensuring effective and comprehensive investigations and preventing such offences," thee statement reads.