Armenia’s Prisons Need ‘State-Level Revolutionary Reforms’

The situation in Armenia with regard to the protection of prisoners' rights has not improved significantly over the last years. Some individual issues are perhaps resolved, but there has been no systemic change in penitentiaries' policies, Arayik Zalyan, the newly elected head of the public monitoring group supervising Armenia's detention facilities, said at a press conference Tuesday.

Since the start of the year, the group has made 57 visits to the countries' penitentiary institutions and met with 88 prisoners. “As in previous years, the problems of vulnerable groups –  including but not limited to homosexuals, those with health issues, and those undergoing methadone treatment – remain relevant,” public observer Sergey Gabrielyan said, stressing that these are the groups that are mainly discriminated against in prisons.

Ara Gharagyozyan, another member of the group, talked about a recent violent incident in Yerevan's Nubarashen prison when convicts Tigran Yeganyan, Artur Hovhannisyan and Mushegh Mkhitaryan were beaten with a baton by prison officers.

“Prison administration claims that the prisoners had demanded cigarettes and initiated disobedience when they were refused it. The prisoners, however, subsequently told us that they had not demanded any cigarettes. They said that there is an inmate with mental health issues in their cell and on that they he needed medical assistance thrice. The prisoners asked for a doctor but no one was sent to them, so they resorted to disobedience and were soon taken to a separate room and beaten with batons. Forensic medical examination was carried out only 4 days later, and not all injuries were recorded. The convicts therefore tried to appeal to the office of the general prosecutor but their crime reports did not go past the walls of the prison,” Gharagyozyan said, adding that the inmate with mental health problems has yet to receive any kind of medical assistance from officials.

The participants of the press conference also discussed the interpersonal relations in prisons, claiming that the prevailing unwritten laws suppress any form of “undesired behaviours” of prisoners. Lawyer Robert Revazyan, for his part, stressed that Armenia's penitentiaries need state-level revolutionary reforms.

The public observers also commented on the issue of the provision of medical care in prisons. “Last year, a total of 28 convicts died in Armenian prisons, three of whom committed suicide, while the rest died from various diseases,” Arayik Zalyan said.

He added that the family of only one deceased convict have appealed to the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Vanadzor Office with a request to establish the circumstances of the prisoner's death. “It turned out that convict Serob Gevorgyan had been denied timely medical treatment. Had the family not appealed [to HCAV], we would have never found out about it.”

Zalyan also spoke about prisoner Hrachya Gevorgyan who has long been confined to a wheelchair because a number of serious health problems. “His cell is not equipped with proper living conditions. [Armenia] has failed to fulfil its positive obligations [under the European Convention on Human Rights,” Zalyan concluded.