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The most important areas of state significance, related to state security, should always be highly disciplined and be controlled by the Supreme Body of the State for the benefit of both society and state security. And if the state is unable to do so, and it results, for example, in non-combat deaths, murders or “suicides” of soldiers in the army, then the need for public control  becomes evident.

Guided by this very logic, Artur Sakunts, Chairman of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor, applied to the Administrative Court to get information from the Ministry of Defense on the number of soldiers in the RA Army who died during peaceful conditions, as differentsources indicate different numbers, and it is not clear which one is correct. If the true number is unknown or concealed, citizens are deprived of the opportunity to see the real picture of the situation in the army and to take appropriate measures against these vicious happenings. Neither the Administrative northe other twocourts were obliged to provide such information to the human rights organization referring to some provisions in the Law on State Secrets.

On March 6, 2012, the RA Constitutional Court took under review, the written procedure of the claim of the authorized representatives of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor NGO, Artak Zeynalyan and Arayik Ghazaryan, to determine whether point f) of Part 4 of Article 8 and the 6th and 7th Parts of Article 12 of the RA Law on State Secret contradict the RA Constitution. The Constitutional Court satisfied the claim and published only the final part of the decision.  The claim states that Article 12 of the RA Law on State and Official Secrets entitles the agencies of the Executive Branch to develop and, with legal acts, to verify extensive departmental lists of confidential information, which they are authorized to manage. Moreover, the provisions of the disputed article, prescribes that the list of confidential information itself is also confidential. In other words, confidential legal acts of the department define what information is confidential.  Under such conditions, a large and important sphere of activities of public authorities is left out of public observation, which is incompatible with the fundamental principles of a legal and democratic society.

After the conclusion of the Constitutional Court, we turned to Artak Zeynalyan to find out some details related to the decision of the Constitutional Court. In a conversation with www.1in.am Zeynalyan noted: ”We disputed several provisions of the Law on State and Official Secrets, which were applied against Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor. HCAV requested that the Ministry of Defense, provide the data on non-combat deaths in the army; however, the Ministry refused to do so, on the grounds that it was classified by an order. The Organization then requested a corresponding order to find out what information is classified. The Constitutional Court responded that the order was classified as well. HCAV disputed it in the courts, and they referred to the same provisions of the Law on State Secrets.  We disputed it in the Constitutional Court, and the Constitutional Court assessed its constitutionality. In the final part of the conclusion,the Court statedthat the legal act should be reviewed. At the same time the actions of the Judge of the Administrative Court were assessed as “exceeding his powers”.  We motioned to suspend the proceedings of the case, and appealed to the Constitutional Court on the issue of constitutionality, but the judge performed constitutional justice and found that the law did not contradict the Constitution and rejected our motion on that basis. Tomorrow, we will receive the judicial act and will study it thoroughly, but, I believe that the judicial act of the Constitutional Court is a very important event in legal and public life, and I congratulate everyone on this occasion”.

According to the report on democracy and human rights in Armenia published by the USA Department of State, in 2011, there were 54 death cases recorded in the RA Armed Forces, but according to the Ministry of Defense – 34.  Referring to the year of 2005 during a discussion, Chairman of Helsinki Committee of Armenia, Avetik Ishkhanyan noticed that in response to the inquiry by Human Rights Watch related to the number of deaths in the army, the website of the Ministry of Foreign Relations had mentioned only 12 death cases.  In that  same year, the Minister of Defense, Serzh Sargsyan stated in an interview that the number decreased significantlyand there were only 42 victims. The Ministry of Defense informed Helsinki Committee of Armenia that the number of deaths in the army was 28, while the Military Prosecutor’s Office indicated 89 death cases.

Source: http://www.1in.am