Prosperous Armenia political party needed a period of 4 months and a summon to finally answer the enquiry by FOICA.

With a 4-month delay, On September 4, 2012, FOICA received an answer to the enquiry for receiving information sent to the Prosperous Armenia party on April 25, 2012. FOICA was trying to clarify information about the election campaign funding by PAP.

Note that due to the fact of not receiving an answer to its April 25 enquiry, FOICA has sent a repeated enquiry on May 16, 2012, which was left unanswered either. Therefore, the Freedom of Information Center turned to the First Instance Court of General Jurisdiction of Arabkir and Kanaker-Zeytun administrative districts on July 2, 2012 with a claim of obliging the PAP to provide the complete information within a 5-day period.

The first court session is set for September 12. However, prior to the process, PAP rushed to answer the FOICA’s enquiries on September 4, 2012 (3 months and 19 days after the repeated enquiry and more than 4 months after sending the first enquiry) and has provided a complete answer. Attached to the answer, PAP has provided also the copy of the answer to the claim sent to the Arabkir and Kanaker-Zeytun First Instance Court of General Jurisdiction which reads that PAP has completed FOICA’s request on September 4, 2012. As a result, FOICA’s case can be dismissed with the basis that the claim has been already completed.

It turns out that, violating the constitutional right of receiving information, failure to provide the requested information for about 4 months, and forcing to turn to the court, the Prosperous Armenia party which has violated the fundamental right to freedom of information can thus easily be released of liability.