The first initial court sitting on the case against the RA Ministry of Justice to provide information to the PRWB NGO was held in the RA Administrative Court.

On January 10 of 2019, the Protection of Rights without Borders NGO filed an inquiry to Artak Zeynalyan, the acting Minister of Justice, as well as the Chairman of the Consultation Commission on Amnesty Discussion Issues asking to provide the following information.

1. How many amnesty petitions were submitted to the RA Ministry of Justice by the life sentenced prisoners in 2018? Provide information related to the names, surnames of the life sentenced prisoners, as well as the actual period of the life sentences, for which the latter were sentenced.
2. How many prisoners from the life sentenced prisoners, who applied for amnesty were convicted to death sentence?
3. How many prisoners from the life sentenced prisoners, who applied for amnesty accepted their guilt and regretted for it? Provide concrete names.
4. The personal cases of how many prisoners from the life sentenced prisoners, who applied for amnesty, were presented to Consultation Commission on Amnesty Discussion Issues upon the recommendation of the RA Prime Minister.
5. On how many cases did the Consultation Commission on Amnesty Discussion Issues filed positive conclusion. Provide the names, surname of the concrete prisoners, as well as its grounds and the justifications according to each prisoner.
6. Provide the personal data of the prisoners who had the negative conclusion of the Consultation Commission on Amnesty Discussion Issues, as well as on the lack of grounds and justification of such conclusion according to each prisoner.

According to the response received on January 24 of 2019, the Ministry of Justice provided a partial answer in regard to only the first pointed of the above mentioned issues. In regard to all the other issues, the provision of information was rejected with the justification, that according to the Republic of Armenia Laws on “Protection of Personal Data” and “On Amnesty” respectively, the Republic of Armenia Ministry of Justice does not have the jurisdiction to provide the personal data of the prisoners, who filed a petition of amnesty and the questions and the expressed positions including in the agenda of the Commission’s sitting are not subject to publication in a line with the RA Prime Minister Decree N 782-N on “Approving the Work Order of the Amnesty Issues Discussion Commission”.

On February 22 of 2019, the Organization filed an appeal to the RA Court of Appeal demanding to oblige the Ministry of Justice to Provide the demanded information fully.

The initial court sitting scheduled for May 8 of 2019 was delayed with the reasoning of the Ministry of Justice being as the proper respondent by the current case, the replacement of the latter or the involvement of a third party as a responded by the current case.