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The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday delivered a judgement in the case of Hamzayan v. Armenia, obliging the state to pay the applicant €4,000.

The applicant, Marina Hamzayan, is an Armenian national who was born in 1980 and lives in Yerevan.

The case concerned an administrative penalty that the applicant, a Jehovah’s Witness, was given by the Nagorno-Karabakh authorities, for having a religious conversation with somebody, not a Jehovah’s Witness, in that person’s home.

Relying on Articles 9 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion) and 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the European Convention on Human Rights, the woman complained that being given an administrative penalty for a peaceful discussion of a religious text constituted an "unlawful and disproportionate interference" with her right to freedom of religion. She maintained that she was discriminated against by the authorities as she was treated differently to the followers of officially registered religions.

The European court unanimously held that there had been a violation of Article 9 of the European Convention and told the Armenian government to pay the applicant 3,000 euros in non-pecuniary damage and 1,000 euros for costs and expenses.

Meanwhile, the ECHR held that there was no need to examine the admissibility or the merits of the complaint under Article 14 of the Convention.