On March 16, due to the state of emergency, deliverables and parcels were prohibited at penitentiary institutions of the Ministry of Justice of Armenia. This is what deputy of the Bright Armenia faction of the National Assembly Ani Samsonyan said in parliament today.

“We know that there are twelve penitentiary institutions, of which only two penitentiary institutions serve food provided by private organizations, and the remaining ten penitentiary institutions have a problem with serving food, and this problem has been solved through deliverables to this day. When the deliverables were prohibited, arrestees started facing problems.

It’s clear that the ban on visits and deliverables due to the state of emergency may be reasonable, but during this period, we realized that it’s not too reasonable because if an arrestee’s relative isn’t allowed to bring a box of pastry, but the arrestee can purchase that same box of pastry from a store located near the penitentiary institution, this isn’t reasonable. This is a problem,” she said, adding that the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture says that family members and relatives must have an opportunity to give arrestees food and necessary accessories during the state of emergency, taking into account the possible measures for protection.