Armenian Prison Chief Sacked Over Abuse of Power Allegations: Press

Following a May 3 probe at Yerevan's Nubarashen penitentiary, the Armenian General Prosecutor's office has opened a criminal investigation into allegations of “scandalous abuse of power” by the management of the prison, Zhoghovurd newspaper reports. The corresponding article of the Armenian Criminal Code envisages up to four years of imprisonment for the alleged crime. In addition, according to the newspaper, Nubarashen Chief Rubik Stepanyan was sacked after the initiation of the proceedings. 

“Nubarashen inmates are usually sent food, cigarettes and other good form their relatives outside, and all this is kept in a special prison cell and, according to an unwritten internal law, has to be distributed among the prisoners by the so-called prison watchers. However, the inmates' relatives told Zhoghovurd, the recent inspection has now banned this.”

One of the inmates, in turn, told the papers how the prison population has reacted to the ban: “The watchers usually 'seize' the food sent to the prisoners and later give it to them in the form of aid; officers of the General Prosecutor's office, however, have put a ban on the food and its distribution. We, the inmates and the convicts, raised a fuss to prevent the ban on the food, causing the quarantined prisoners to set their bedding on fire and throw it out of the window. It was terrible. Other inmates were banging on the doors. [Officials] won't even let us live in peace within these four walls.”