Epress.am News from Armenia
The European Court of Human Rights has requested Armenia’s government on February 3 to provide the complete medical history and medical records on Nubarashen prisoner Hovhannes Harutyunyan, one of the opposition gunmen who kept a Yerevan police station under siege for two weeks last summer; the Court has given the Armenian officials until February 15 to respond to the request, Harutyunyan’s lawyer, Hayarpi Sargsyan, told Epress.am Tuesday. The lawyer expressed the hope that the European Court will finally facilitate her client’s transfer to a civilian hospital.
Sargsyan said that Harutyunyan’s gunshot leg wound hasn’t been fully cleared of debris; neither has the prisoner undergone a knee surgery as such. According to some medical douments, Harutyunyan has had 18 pieces of debris in his wound for nearly 6 months, the lawyer added.
She also said that her client, for no apparent basis, was transferred to a solitary confinement cell from 17 to 19 January. Harutyunyan has now been moved to a ground-floor cell in Nubarashen; however, according to Sargsyan, the prison administration had previously announced that the cells on the ground floor had been closed down due to poor conditions. “Now they have taken Hovhannes to this cell, for no other reason than to put pressure on him,” the lawyer said.