A new anti-torture committee report on Armenia reveals concern about the treatment of the country’s life-sentence prisoners.
Today’s report from the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), followed a visit to the country last December.
It states that “virtually none of the recommendations made after previous visits as regards the detention of lifers have been implemented.”
A CPT statement reads: “The poor material environment and impoverished regime at Kentron Prison made it unsuitable for lengthy periods of detention. As for the conditions of detention of life-sentenced prisoners held at Kentron, the CPT states that they could be considered as amounting to inhuman treatment.”
In its response, the Armenia authorities stress that most of the CPT’s recommendations will be implemented once the new prison in Armavir becomes operational in December 2013.
The 2011 CPT visit assessed the steps taken by the Armenian authorities to implement long-standing recommendations made by the CPT, in particular those concerning the treatment of prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment.
The Committee’s delegation visited Yerevan-Kentron Prison and carried out a targeted visit to the unit for lifers and the disciplinary unit of Nubarashen Prison.
The delegation received no recent allegations of deliberate physical ill-treatment of prisoners by staff in either of the prisons visited.
