Armenia's Justice minister praises current conditions in penitentiaries, says issue settled during the ruling of current authorities

Armenia’s Justice Minister Artak Zeynalyan is convinced that currently courts are more independent than they used to be.

“We have all got convinced in the fact that today courts are more independent than previously,” Zeynalyan told the reporters today.

The other thing the official said he is proud of is the conditions the convicts in penitentiaries are kept in. He said the conditions there are good and neither of convicts complains of them.

“As of now we have 5 convicts who declared hunger strike. It is a rather low index as compared with the previous years. There are no complaints of the keeping conditions,” the minister said, adding that the complaints mainly refer to their criminal cases which is not in the authority of Justice Ministry.

He said that each convict has his own bed and there are no queues for sleeping.

“The number of beds in penitentiaries is 5,350 and the numbers of convicts and arrestees 2,287, currently there cannot be spoken about queues. The issue has been solved during the ruling of current authorities,” the minister said.