Youth Attempts Suicide in Yerevan Court: Helsinki Association for Human Rights (VIDEO)

According to the mother of Armen Martirosyan, whose trial resumed on Monday at the Court of First Instance of Arabkir and Qanaqer-Zeytun Communities of Yerevan, her son tried to kill himself for the third time since his arrest on Jan. 19, 2010, notes the Helsinki Association for Human Rights.

Ophelia Martirosyan, Armen’s mother, contacted the Helsinki Association, saying that her son’s testimony was extracted through torture. According to the distraught mother, after 1 am, about 10–15 plainclothes police officers entered their home without knocking and without identifying themselves and began to search the home. Armen Martirosyan was apprehended when he was still in Gyumri, and, according to the mother, he was beaten and tortured the whole way from Gyumri to Yerevan’s Arabkir police station. About 2–3 days after being picked up, he was moved to the youth ward where Ophelia Martirosyan saw the bruises on his body. She said that her son’s kidneys were shedding blood for about two months afterwards.

According to the Helsinki Association, Armen Martirosyan said he became quite ill while being tortured, so he was taken near the window and told he would be thrown out of there. The human rights organization reports that Martirosyan attempted suicide in the ward by slitting his wrists in order to free himself from the torture. The group says it also has information of torture used against the rest of the accused; however, it is unable to present concrete evidence at this time.

The trial against Armen Martirosyan began in Aug. 2010. He, along with Karen Karapetyan and Petros Hakobyan, is being accused of several incidents of theft and banditry conducted in 2009. He is being charged under RA Criminal Code Article 175, Section 3-1 (“banditry committed in a particularly large amount with the purpose of theft”) 3-2 (“banditry committed by an organized group); Article 235, Section 3 (“illegal procurement, transportation or carrying of weapons, ammunition, explosives or explosive devices committed by an organized group”); and Article 236, Section 3 (“illegal manufacture of weapons committed by an organized group”).

The trial is ongoing.