The Issues over Exemption of Seriously Sick Convicts from Punishment were discussed

The Public Monitoring Group at Penitentiary Institutions of the RA Ministry of Justice informs that a meeting over the issues of punishment exemption of convicts suffering from diseases obstructing the service of sentences was convened on September 15.

Representatives and experts from RA Ministry of Justice, Prosecutor General’s Office, Police Medical Administration, Interdepartmental Medical Commission, Judiciary Department, Human Rights Defender’s Office as well as non-governmental organizations participated in this round-table discussion, which was held behind closed doors.

Laura Gasparyan, member of Public Monitoring Group at Penitentiary Institutions of the RA Ministry of Justice and Nikolay Arustamyan, advisor to the RA Minister of Justice, presented the procedural and legislative drawbacks regarding punishment exemption of convicts suffering from diseases impeding the service of sentence. The Public Monitoring Group presented the drawbacks of medical examination of convicts, medical report on their health conditions, and punishment exemption procedure on the continuum of Penitentiary-Medical Working Commission-Intergovernmental Medical Commission, regarding which urgent reports were formed and addressed to the RA Ministry of Defense by the Public Monitoring Group with a special focus on specific cases.

By addressing the brought up issues, Nikolay Arustamyan drew the attention of the participants on the fact that the presence of a disease impeding the service of the sentence is not itself a good ground for the punishment exemption of convicts. According to him, it is of great importance to assess the possibility of proper medical service provision to the convict, suffering from a specific disease, at a detention facility. At the same time, it was stated that the working order of Intergovernmental Medical Commission is missing until present.

The participants of round-table discussion also talked about the necessity of decision-making by Intergovernmental Medical Commission and the issues over the provision of negative decisions to convicts. The brought up issues and proposed recommendations during the discussion will be summarized and presented to the RA Ministry of Justice in order to yield relevant decisions over them. 

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