Epress.am News from Armenia
In Armenia, 90% of prisoners are beaten, as well as interrogated without an attorney, said Chair of the Helsinki Committee of Armenia Avetik Ishkhanyan at a discussion organized at Yerevan's Media Center on occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture today.
During the discussion, civil society activist Dvin Isanyans described how police officers beat him after he participated in a demonstration to protest the renaming of Mashtots Park.
"While detaining me during a civic rally, police officers beat me and electroshocked me so much that I lost consciousness. Taking me to the station, in the elevator they [police officers] cursed and slapped me, then when the elevator doors opened, they began to address me with 'dear citizen'," said Isanyans. He said that he wasn't allowed to call an attorney.
Head of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly – Vanadzor Office, human rights activist Artur Sakunts, in turn, addressed incidents of torture in psychiatric institutions. "The number of deaths recorded in psychiatric institutions annually doesn't surpass the number of cases of death in the army, but no criminal case was launched for any of them," he said.
There have been 308 cases of death in the last 9 years, he said.
"In the last 4 years, material was prepared for 40 cases, but no criminal case was launched for any of them. If during the Soviet Union, psychiatric institutions were used as means for political punishment, well now [they’re used] for determining relations between relatives; for example, in matters of inheritance and property ownership," he said.