Open letter to minister
"A1+" today received an open letter from a group of prisoners of "Vardashen" Penitentiary, asking RA Minister of Justice Hrair Tovmasyan to assign his subjects to carry out actions by RA laws.
The prisoners mention that the Penitentiary still isn't implementing the changes that the minister had promised and there are still phenomena that have nothing to do with the existing legislation or the humanitarian policy.
In the letter, the prisoners expressed their gratitude for the reduction of time in prison and the release of 27 prisoners by amnesty. However, they register that the administrative committee of "Vardashen" Penitentiary is carrying out a number of illegitimate acts.
The prisoners particularly complain that out of the 41 prisoners' appeals for discussion, the Penitentiary's administrative committee in charge of premature release denied 29 within the past two months. They say this goes to show that the committee is only guided by the well-known standards and overlooks the demands stated in the RA "Criminal Code".
The prisoners at "Vardashen" Penitentiary assure that the 29 prisoners have no fines and the penitentiary employees characterize them as positive. "Guided by the law, more prisoners could have been released in two months than those released by amnesty. This defective phenomenon has been continuing for 5 years and if we count how many prisoners are illegally kept at the penitentiaries, the picture will be complete," as stated in the prisoners' open letter.
