Epress.am News from Armenia
The Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Vanadzor office (HCAV) on Wednesday issued a statement, saying that he family of an inmate who died in Armavir prison on January 4 finds suicide implausible. Anzor Karapetyan, 21, was a “man of strong will” and had no reason to commit suicide, relatives said. They added that the traces of violence on the inmate's body and the damage to his internal organs also refute the official suicide version.
The 21-year-old man, as stated by HCAV, participated in a fight on December 21, 2015 in the Armenian town of Armavir. He then turned himself in to the police and was arrested on the spot. Three days later, a court ruled to send Karapetyan to Armavir jail.
“The above-mentioned indicates that Anzor Karapetyan only spent a few hours at the penitentiary, and the circumstances that might have pushed him to suicide remain unclear,” the human rights organization stressed, adding that suicide can be ruled out by all the facts currently available.
“The applicants said they did not have any information on the measures taken to establish the circumstances of Anzor Karapetyan'a death and hoped to get the organization's help in this regard.
“Note, according to recent press reports, in the last period there were two other cases of suicide at Armavir penitentiary: one of the inmates was found hanged on December 19, 2015, and prisoner Armen Parsadyan's body was discovered in one of the cells on January 6, 2016.
“The criminal executive department of Armenia's Justice Ministry has issued an official statement regarding these two cases; however, they've provided no information about Karapetyan's death.”
HCAV states that this fact increases the degree of uncertainty about the inmate having committed suicide, while also finding it notable that Karapetyan was being kept in the same cell where one of the aforementioned suicide cases had occurred.