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On March 15, 2016, the RA Administrative Court, presided K. Avetisyan, held a next-in-turn pre-trial court hearing on HCA Vanadzor v RA Government following the requirement to compel the RA Government to provide requested information.

Note that by this claim, HCA Vanadzor required that the Court compelled the RA Government to provide the anual data of the persons awarded weapons by the RA Prime Minister in 1992-2015.

The court hearing was attended by Arayik Zalyan, HCA Vanadzor lawyer and representative of A. Sakunts, Chairman of the Organization, and Edgar Andreasyan and Narek Simonyan, representatives of RA Government.

Plaintiff’s representative A. Zalyan clarified the substance of the claim above and required that the Court compelled the RA Government to provide the number of persons awarded weapons in 1992-1998 as well, since the Organization had received information on the number of persons awarded weapons in 1998-2015, as well as to provide information on the types of weapons awarded.

In response to presiding judge K. Avetisyan’s questions, A. Zalyan stated that the Organization required information on the names and surnames of the persons awarded weapons as well as the types of such weapons by classification in groups of combat and non-combat weapons.

N. Simonyan, representative of the RA Government on the part of the RA Police, submitted to the Court written objections to the claim, mentioning that according to the RA Police, the provision of the information requested would result in restriction of such persons’ right to privacy and family life and referred to the provisions of Article 8 of the RA Law on Freedom of Information, according to which information holder refused to provide information if it infringed the privacy of a person and his family.

In response to the Court’s question on whether the reports on the use of the state budget funds contained any information on purchase of weapons, E. Andreasyan, representative of the RA Government on the part of the RA Ministry of Finance, gave a positive answer.

The Court also asked questions the defendant’s representatives on the mass media publications provided by the plaintiff’s representative at the previous pre-trial court hearing.  

In particular, presiding judge K. Avetisyan asked whether the media publications violated the person’s right to privacy and family life. In response to this question, E. Andreasyan made an allegation that in such cases, the data of the person awarded weapon were published by his/her consent.

Then the Court asked whether the persons awarded weapons were asked about their consent in terms of the response to the Organization’s inquiry. E. Andreasyan mentioned that no such action had been taken; he also mentioned that such information was intended for official use and was not subject to disclosure.

At the pre-trial court hearing, the Court tried to find out the purpose of obtaining such information. A. Zalyan noted that HCA Vanadzor was an NGO, and the information was required for the implementation of its strategic goals; particularly, he noted that the inquiry aimed to find out what funds were spent from the RA state budget for awarding weapons.

Having established the lack of any necessity to provide any other evidence, the Court considered that case ready for trial proceedings and scheduled the court hearing for April 26, 2015, at 11:30 am.