Epress.am News from Armenia
The Armenian Ministry of Health has decided to terminate administrative proceedings against the Heratsi hospital complex in Yerevan “due to lack of an administrative offense.” The proceedings had been opened based on a complaint filed by an LGBT activist who had gone to the hospital on February 15 following a physical assault on a central Yerevan street. Instead of treating his injuries, the activist claimed, the hospital staff subjected him to mockery and ridicule and even suggested to “get you a blood test and see if you have any abnormalities we could cure.” The Health Ministry, however, has refused to further investigate the matter, insisting that the activist did not encounter any problems at the hospital and received proper care from the staff.
“It was clear to us from the start that [the Ministry] wanted to cover up the case. They conducted two hearings during which they tried to take the case in a totally different direction,” Mamikon Hovsepyan, the executive director of Public Information and Need of Knowledge NGO (PINK Armenia), said in an interview with Epress.am.
He added that officials were only trying to establish whether the activist had received “sufficient services” at the hospital and refused to look into the victim’s complaint of ill-treatment, citing lack of jurisdiction and insisting that surveillance footage “showed only good treatment from the staff.”
During the second hearing, as stated by Hovsepyan, when the victim and his supporters demanded to see the surveillance footage, it turned out that the recording did not exist since it had been automatically erased after a 15-day retention period. “There was probably something they did not want us to see. How could they allow the main evidence to be deleted while production was still ongoing?”