Epress.am News from Armenia
Former deputy defense minister Vahan Shirkhanyan, who was arrested in December 2015 for allegedly having links to the armed gang which Armenia’s security forces had cracked down a month prior, has been completely isolated by authorities, his lawyer, Hayk Alumyan, announced in a news conference on Monday.
According to the lawyer, up until Saturday, he was the only person allowed to visit Shirkhanyan; however, on February 11 he was also denied visitation when he went to the Nubarashen prison to deliver the documents received from the European Court of Human Rights regarding Shirkhanyan’s case. The prison officials told Alumyan that the inmate had refused to leave his cell and come to the visitation room.
“Everyone is aware that Shirkhanyan is unable to move on his own; officers used to assist him to walk to the visitation room during all our previous meetings. This time, however, they refused to help him,” Alumyan said. He added that prison officials also rejected his offer to visit Shirkhanyan in his cell. “Then they denied my request to at least give Shirkhanyan the ECHR documents. They have illegally and arbitrarily isolated Shirkhanyan from the outside world and are trying to pressure him psychologically.”
Alumyan is convinced that the prison administration’s attitude towards Shirkhanyan changed after the European Court demanded to be sent all records of medical care provided to his client to date; “Our only hope is the ECHR, and they have, thankfully, begun taking active steps with regard to Shirkhanyan’s case.”