The first hearing against the NSS decision to ban French-Armenian public figure Al. Varpetyan’s entry to the RA took place
16:37, December 20, 2017 | News, Own news | Freedom of Movement
Al. Varpetyan’s entry to the RA has been banned since 2002.
The RA National Security Service interpreted the ban on entry with the help of the RA Law on Foreigners, stating that there were “reliable data” indicating that Al. Varpetyan’s activity could harm the RA security. The public figure’s data have been entered into the “data bank of the aliens considered undesirable in the territory of the RA.”
Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office undertook the defense of Al. Varpetyan’s rights, and on March 10, 2017 the Organization applied to the NSS with the request to lift the ban on his entry. The NSS rejected both the application and the administrative complaint submitted against the decision on rejecting the application. Under the decision of May 3, 2017, the NSS reaffirmed the position expressed prior to this and claimed that “not lifting the ban on entry to the RA was grounded and lawful.”
On June 6, 2017 Al. Varpetyan’s representative A. Chatinyan, advocate at HCA Vanadzor, applied to court in regard to recognizing as unlawful the entering of Al. Varpetyan’s data into the data bank of the aliens considered undesirable in the territory of the RA and the decision to reject the administrative complaint.
It should be reminded that in May 2015 another French-Armenian public figure Jean Baptiste Ozkirisyan’s (Shant Voskerchyan) data were entered into the data bank of the aliens considered undesirable in the territory of the RA, and he was banned from entry to the RA. HCA Vanadzor undertook Shant Voskerchyan’s defense, and after appealing before the court, on April 25, 2016 the data concerning him were withdrawn from the data bank of the aliens considered undesirable in the territory of the RA.
At the hearing yesterday Al. Varpetyan’s representative A. Chatinyan represented the grounds and essence of the appeal, following which the court inquired about the procedure of entering people’s data in the data bank of the aliens considered undesirable in the territory of the RA.