Epress.am News from Armenia
Hrachya Gevorgyan, a seriously ill inmate at Yerevan's Nubarashen prison, was recently questioned by officers of the criminal֊executive department of Armenia's Justice Ministry over his July 8 handwritten open letter to reporters in which he spoke out about the plight he had to endure during his incarceration as well as the disastrous policies and customs in the penitentiary, Arman Veziryan, an observer with Armenia's Helsinki Association, told Epress.am Tuesday.
“During the questioning, Hrach said, he signed a statement asserting the truthfulness of his claims,” Veziryan noted, adding that the inmate had also asked him to announce publicly that the 1300 inmates of Nubarashen were under the care of only 5 doctors and paramedics.
When reached for comment, the press service of the criminal֊executive department insisted that Gevorgyan had refused to answer the officers' questions or elaborate any further on the statements he had made in his letter. In addition, officials said Gevorgyan was set to be transferred to Hospital of Convicts penitentiary.
Recall, Hrachya Gevorgyan is suffering from chronic hepatitis C, chronic bronchitis, Parkinson's disease, and a pulmonary arterial hypertension; when eating or taking care of personal needs, the prisoner has to rely on the help of other inmates. He has gone on a number of hunger strikes to demand that authorities provide him with proper medical care, but to no avail since prison officials have yet to ensure that the prisoner undergoes any sort of treatment. Earlier this month, Armenia's criminal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling of 8 years’ imprisonment for Gevorgyan.
In his open letter, the inmate, talked in particular about the “unlawful activities” the prison management engage in; he also demanded that Armenia's human rights Ombudsman visited him “to tell him something face to face.”
“[…] The prison warden is a criminal from head to toe. The [former deputy warden] – Smbat Bulghadaryan – is warden Sedrak Harutyunyan accomplice, so [Harutyunyan] hastily transferred Bulghadaryan to another prison so that their dirty affairs do not surface…
“[…] Each of their snitches has like 3 phones and a tablet; this I can say with 1,000 percent certainty. [Officers] search the cells every week, and the inmates give them 20-30 thousand drams and a broken phone so that they have what to present [the chiefs] with. Those are the cell phones they usually show on TV. [The inmates] give 20-30 thousand drams (about ($42- $63) per week as well as two broken phones a month, and they are free to carry as many cell phones as they wish. There are cells that pay more – around 40-50 thousand drams…
“[…] I’m not afraid to possibly be persecuted because of this letter; I’m used to it. I’ve lived through terrible ill-treatment over the years, and I’m no longer scared of them nor do I fear the new ways of moral tortures they keep coming up with. The doctors [of Convicts’ Hospital] injected me with something two years ago to make me unable to speak or to walk, and [Nubarashen authorities] are doing everything in their power to keep it secret…They deliberately deny me any medical care because they want me to starve to death,” excerpts from Gevorgyan's letter read.