Soldiers aren’t allowed to take their clothes off
"Civil Society Institute" NGO presented today a study showing the conditions at the Defense Ministry's military detention cells.
The book-report entitled "Conditions of individuals deprived of liberty at the RA Defense Ministry's military detention cells and the disciplinary battalion" was prepared with support from the OSCE Office in Yerevan.
Out of the 11 cells, 7 have been renovated and correspond to the standards.
However, the cells that haven't been renovated are in rather critical sanitary-hygienic conditions, such as the detention cells in Vedi, Gyumri and Etchmiadzin where it won't be possible to ensure normal conditions for prisoners even in the case of renovation.
"The flaws with the conditions are mainly due to the Soviet legislation that is enforced to this day," says President of "Civil Society Institute" NGO Arman Danielyan.
According to him, soldiers are not allowed to have beds in the disciplinary cells and "are forced to sleep on the scaffold without any accessories and aren't even allowed to take their clothes off."
Attending the discussion was Head of the Division in charge of Control of Legality of Penalties and Compulsions of the Central Military Prosecutor's Office Manvel Grigoryan who said that he didn't "smell" any "Soviet" legislation.
As far as the conditions are concerned, Manvel Grigoryan claimed that there are no cells with unfavorable conditions and it is impossible to ensure their liberties under those conditions."
There is a contradiction between the Constitution and the existing legislation. The law allows a commander to make a decision on the detention cell, but the Constitution doesn't allow a person to be deprived of liberty without a court ruling.
