Injured Sasna Tsrer Member Getting Sicker Instead of Receiving Needed Treatment at Hospital, Lawyer Says

Hovhannes Harutyunyan, a member of the Sasna Tsrer (Daredevils of Sasun) armed group who was hospitalized with a gunshot leg injury after a shoot-out with police on July 26, a week into the seige of the police headquarters in Yerevan’s Erebuni district, is becoming sicker rather than getting the much needed treatment for his injuries at the Convicts’ Hospital, Harutyunyan’s lawyer, Hayarpi Sargsyan, wrote on her Facebook page on Sunday, after visiting her client at the hospital.

“His room was so cold that my hands were freezing in my gloves. The remote control for the TV was nowhere to be found; some of his personal items, including hygiene products, had disappeared; the refrigerator was still in the hallway, supposedly waiting to be cleaned; cold wind was blowing through the window. [Hovhannes] is not eating; the room is not being cleaned. They must have forgotten that it’s a hospital room, and patients are supposed to become healthy there rather than get increasingly sicker. Hovhannes is not even able to sleep at nights because of the pain in his leg; his heart was aching, he has caught a cold […] He has become completely detached from the outside world. Naturally, I cannot physically afford to spend much time with him, so I can’t see who he gets visits from. It’s still unknown when and to what kind of pressure he is currently being subjected to,” Sargsyan wrote.

She added that on December 12, she had filed an appeal letter regarding the conditions Harutyunyan is being held in to the Special Investigation Service, but so far officials have taken no effective measures to improve the conditions. Harutyunyan labelled this treatment as “deliberate steps by state authorities directed against Harutyunyan’s health and life safety.”