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Hetq Denied Jail Visit to See Sarkis Hatspanian
hetq
15:11, May 4, 2011
Hetq`s request to visit written to visit Sarkis Hatspanian, a
French-Armenian serving time in the Vardashen Correctional Facility
for "false denunciation", has been turned down twice by the Department
of Corrections
We originally sent a written request to Minister of Justice Hrayr
Tovmasyan. Our petition was then forwarded to the Department of
Corrections and two weeks later we received a refusal letter from
Arsen Babayan, who heads the departments oublic affairs division.
Babayan argued that that due to the agency's tremendous workload our
request couldn't be permitted at this time and that we should reapply
in 1-2 months.
This is not the first time we have received such a puzzling response
from Mr. Babayan.
We wrote back to Minister Tovmasyan, explained the situation, and
asked what exactly was going on at the Department of Corrections for
them to be so busy and stretched for the next two months.
Given that the Corrections Department is under the jurisdiction of the
Ministry we asked Mr. Tovmasyan to tell us when reporters would be
allowed into the prisons.
The reply we got was again from Babayan at the Department of
Corrections. This time the excuse given was organizational and
security concerns."
Go figure...
(The photo on the right is Minister of Justice Tovmasyan; the other,
Arsen Babayan)
From: A. Papazian
hetq
15:11, May 4, 2011
Hetq`s request to visit written to visit Sarkis Hatspanian, a
French-Armenian serving time in the Vardashen Correctional Facility
for "false denunciation", has been turned down twice by the Department
of Corrections
We originally sent a written request to Minister of Justice Hrayr
Tovmasyan. Our petition was then forwarded to the Department of
Corrections and two weeks later we received a refusal letter from
Arsen Babayan, who heads the departments oublic affairs division.
Babayan argued that that due to the agency's tremendous workload our
request couldn't be permitted at this time and that we should reapply
in 1-2 months.
This is not the first time we have received such a puzzling response
from Mr. Babayan.
We wrote back to Minister Tovmasyan, explained the situation, and
asked what exactly was going on at the Department of Corrections for
them to be so busy and stretched for the next two months.
Given that the Corrections Department is under the jurisdiction of the
Ministry we asked Mr. Tovmasyan to tell us when reporters would be
allowed into the prisons.
The reply we got was again from Babayan at the Department of
Corrections. This time the excuse given was organizational and
security concerns."
Go figure...
(The photo on the right is Minister of Justice Tovmasyan; the other,
Arsen Babayan)
From: A. Papazian