Judge or NSS staff member?
17:39, March 4, 2016 | News, Own news
On March 2, 2016, the RA Administrative Court in its Yerevan residence, held a hearing on HCAV v National Security Service under the RA Government.
At the beginning of the court hearing, A. Chatinyan, plaintiff’s representative, introduced the factual and legal grounds of the claim substantiating the fact that the information requested by the Organization might not be considered as state or official secret, and therefore provision of such information might not pose a threat to the security of the RA. The plaintiff party highlighted that the information requested by HCA Vanadzor concerned organizational and procedural issues and was not classified in the list of information constituting state or official secret.
In response to the Court’s question as to why the Organization had requested such information and how it intended to use it, A. Chatinyan, even though she was under no such obligation under the law, answered that by virtue of its human rights activities, the Organization prioritized the proper implementation of the actions of the National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights approved by the Government and training of relevant human rights specialists, and HCA Vanadzor intended to use the information requested within its actions to improve the sector in question.
Along with other essentially irrelevant questions, the Court also asked whether the plaintiff party had no concerns that the disclosure of the requested information might be used by the Azerbaijani authorities against the Republic of Armenia.
The Court also inquired about the origin of the name of HCA Vanadzor, which was also absolutely irrelevant to the case.
The defendant party also insisted on the position that the requested information constituted state and official secret and was not subject to disclosure.
The Court considered the examination of the case completed, and the judicial act will be announced on March 22, 2016, at 2:55 pm.
Note that on March 6, 2015, HCA Vanadzor filed a claim with the RA Administrative Court requiring it to compel the National Security Service under the RA Government to provide the information requested by the Organization back on January 26, 2015 on the implementation of the actions under the National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights approved by the RA Government Decree № 303-N dated February 27, 2014.