Epress.am News from Armenia
The application to organize a press conference by Artak Hakobyan, a prisoner at the “Prisoners Hospital” penitentiary (Yerevan), was rejected, according to Hakobyan’s wife, Hayastan Hakobyan.
She told Epress.am, that the penitentiary had told her husband that his petition was approved, and that they would inform him later about time of the conference. Subsequently, Artak Hakobyan began inviting journalists from various media outlets to attend. However, today the prisoner received a rejection from the penitentiary’s warden.
“They said, that Artak could not hold a press conference and that the content of his speech should not reach the public because the penitentiary was extremely overloaded,” said Hakobyan.
According to her, Artak Hakobyan will submit a complaint to court because of the rejection decision. Yesterday afternoon, Epress.am spoke with the head of public relations department of the Penitentiary Administration, Gor Ghlechyan, http://www.epress.am/en/2014/10/06/armenian-prisoner-wants-press-conference-to-speak-about-prison-life.html that there had not been a concrete decision made regarding the prisoner’s requested press conference.
Note, that on September 26, Hakobyan had deliberately harmed himself, because of the humiliating treatment he received from detention officer, Major Smbat Hakobyan. During the conference, Hakobyan was hoping to speak about prison life and the biased treatment directed toward him.
Earlier, Hakobyan had applied a number of times to court with complaints against the penitentiary administration about the biased and cruel behavior conducted against him. In regards, to the heavy pressure put on him, his form of obtaining revenge based on his testimonies has resulted in the arresting of the “Nubarashen” penitentiary deputy warden, Davit Muradyan and another employee from the same penitentiary.