Epress.am News from Armenia
An official and a human rights activist provided Epress.am with conflicting information about prisoner Hamlet Ghazaryan. According to media reports, Ghazaryan is seeking medical treatment.
Serving his sentence in Artik Penitentiary, Ghazaryan attempted to harm himself by swallowing nails and is now refusing medical care and x-ray tests, an employee with the Ministry of Justice's Penitentiary Service, Gor Ghlechyan, informed Epress.am. According to him, the prisoner's stubbornness is incomprehensible to representatives of state bodies. Ghazaryan is asking to be treated in a civilian hospital; meanwhile, he refuses the care of a doctor specially brought to him from one such hospital.
"He wants to be treated in a civilian hospital when his treatment can be carried out within a medical unit of the penitentiary or the RA Ministry of Justice's Hospital for Convicts," said Ghlechyan.
According to the official, the prisoner tried to harm himself a month ago. On May 12, a needle Ghazaryan swallowed was removed under local anesthesia on May 12 at the medical center in Artik Penitentiary.
Head of a civic group that monitors Armenian prisons Ruben Sargsyan, however, told Epress.am something different about the prisoner's situation. According to Sargsyan, Ghazaryan allowed to under x-ray examination and agreed to surgery. Sargsyan said members of his group saw the x-ray results.
Note, Aravot.am on Wednesday reported [AM] that Ghazaryan has been unable to eat for 29 days, due to nausea and vomiting.
"According to the prisoner, doctors don't visit him. He has one demand: he swallowed nails, crosses, glass, [but] he is not being taken to surgery," wrote Aravot.am.
According to Ghlechyan, however, Ghazaryan is admitting dietary food. Sargsyan likewise said that the prisoner is eating, but he has threatened to go on a hunger strike if he is not treated.