Civilnet
By Lia Avagyan
Armenia’s Justice Minister Srbouhi Galyan said on Thursday she wants to see fewer people held in pre-trial detention, insisting that courts are not acting on political orders when approving such measures. Speaking to reporters in parliament on Tuesday, Galyan said the widespread use of detention as a preventive measure is itself “a problem,” but rejected opposition allegations that judges are targeting government critics.
“It is highly desirable for me that fewer people are detained. I do consider it a problem that detention is applied so often,” she said, adding that any judge proven to be acting with political intent “will face consequences.” Galyan also maintained that Armenia has no political prisoners.
Her remarks come amid opposition claims that courts are being used to silence critics. Several prominent figures including businessman Samvel Karapetyan, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan and Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan, have been charged with offences ranging from money laundering to calls for toppling the constitutional order. The opposition says dozens more cases demonstrate a pattern of politically motivated detentions.
Rights defender highlights deep structural problems
In a recent column on CivilNet, human rights defender Zaruhi Hovhannisyan argued that the problem extends far beyond individual cases, describing Armenia’s detention system as structurally skewed toward excessive use of pre-trial custody. She noted that detainees now outnumber convicted prisoners in Armenia’s penitentiary system, 1,401 versus 1,285 in 2024, a trend that has persisted for years.
See: More Detainees than Convicts: Pretrial Detention in Armenia Still functions as Punishment
Hovhannisyan stressed that despite a 2021 overhaul of the Criminal Procedure Code meant to expand alternatives such as bail, house arrest and supervision, courts continue to rely heavily on detention while rarely justifying the need for it in detail. According to her, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has repeatedly found Armenia in violation of the right to liberty for unlawful or insufficiently reasoned detention orders, a pattern she warns may continue if judicial practice does not change.
She described the system as suffering from “systemic problems,” including the overuse of pre-trial detention, lack of individualized assessment and weak judicial oversight. Courts, she wrote, often approve investigators’ motions “without deep examination,” reinforcing the perception that detention is used as a tool of pressure rather than a last resort.
While Galyan maintains that no political orders influence judges, Hovhannisyan’s assessment suggests entrenched structural practices that long predate the current government, but continue to shape judicial behavior and fuel public distrust.
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