Zaruhi Mejlumyan, journalist covering court cases, and lawyer of Armenia’s Helsinki Committee Robert Revazyan met on Tuesday with cinematographers to draw their attention to the issues of the life convicts in Armenia.

Mejlumyan said there are 105 life convicts in Armenia which is a rather big number for a country having small population.

“While comparing with other countries, it becomes clear that it is a big number. For instance Estonia has 2.5 million population but it has only 36 life convicts. The same is with Slovenia where the number of life convicts is 26. France has 550 life convicts with population of 67 million,” Mejlumyan said, stating that it is the matter of punitive policy.

She said very often the issue is not being limited to jurisprudence but lack of desire to review the cases.

Lawyer Robert Revazyan said neither of criminal cases of life convicts has been reviewed for the past 20 years.

Chairman of the Union of Cinematographers Ruben Gevorgyants said though 105 life convicts are in jail the murders in Armenia continue. “It means the courts are not working efficiently and life imprisonment is of no help,” he said, adding about the necessity of reforms in the system.

At the end of the debate the cinematographers promised to assist and join the call on reviewing the live convict’s cases.