Court of Appeals ruling on HCAV v. RA NSS to be announced on November 15
19:14, October 26, 2016 | News, Own news | Freedom of Information and Speech
On October 26, 2016, the RA Administrative Court of Appeals, presided by judge A. Arakelyan, examined HCA Vanadzor’s appeal against the RA Administrative Court’s judgment of March 22, 2016.
Note that upon examining the claim on compelling the National Security Service under the RA Government, the RA Administrative Court ruled to fully reject it. The judgment was based on the grounds that the required data constituted official secret and were not subject to disclosure. By its inquiry, the Organization required to provide information on the performance of the measures assigned to the National Security Service under the Action Plan of the National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights.
The court hearing was attended by HCA Vanadzor representative Tatevik Siradeghyan, lawyer at Yerevan Office of the Organization, and Mkhitar Mkrtchyan, representative of the National Security Service under the RA Government.
Presiding judge A. Arakelyan presented the procedural background of the case, the grounds and rational of the appeal.
In its appeal, HCA Vanadzor provided arguments that the data requested in the inquiry did not constitute official secret as they concerned exclusively the number of the trainings, training courses and the participants of the trainings organized by the National Security Service under the RA Government, as well as the period of such trainings, the divisions that took part therein, the topics of the trainings and the results of their impact evaluation.
The appeal required reversing the lower court’s judicial act and sending the entire case to re-examination.
No written response on the appeal was submitted.
In response to the Court’s questions, the representative of the National Security Service under the RA Government noted that he completely objected to the appeal and considered the RA Administrative Court’s judgment lawful.
The Parties had no motions; the plaintiff’s representative insisted on the appeal.
Considering the examination of the appeal completed, presiding judge A. Arakelyan assigned the date of announcement of the judicial act.
The judgment of the RA Administrative Court of Appeals on this case will be announced on November 15, 2016, at 4:03 pm.