RA Minister of Justice Karen Andreasyan said today, on 3 November, in the National Assembly, in response to MP Aram Vardevanyan’s question, that a new penitentiary institution will be established in 2022.

“We have 12 penitentiaries, 2 of which we are closing now – “Kosh” and “Hrazdan”, and this is not the end of our program to improve our penitentiary system. In the next stage, we plan to merge these 2 or 3 penitentiaries, but I do not want to publish about it now, because it may cause unnecessary worries in some penitentiaries,” the Minister said.

He mentioned that it is envisaged that if 2 or 3 are closed, they will be united in a new penitentiary institution.

“And now we are in the design work. I cannot promise that the construction of a new penitentiary institution will be completed in 2022, but that the creation of an absolutely new penitentiary institution is planned in 2022, it is already an obvious program for us,” Karen Andreasyan said.

The Minister informed that the territory of the new penitentiary will be in the place of “Erebuni” penitentiary institution.

“And if we succeed in this program, this new penitentiary institution will be a model one. We want to create a new penitentiary, and being there, in some sense, would be a blessing, because there will be absolutely well-protected conditions for human rights, but it may be more painful for those in some penitentiaries, because if they want to break the law, they will not succeed,” he said.