Epress.am News from Armenia
The lawyers of arrested Armenian civic activist Vardges Gaspari report that Gaspari’s wife, Anahit Ayvazi, filed an interim measure appeal with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Wednesday, requesting that ECHR oblige the government of Armenia to take immediate and all necessary measures for ensuring the activist’s security and safety in prison.
In a statement issued Thursday, February 25, Europe in Law Association says that Gaspari has been subjected to beatings, torture and other forms of ill-treatment by cellmates in Yerevan’s Nubarashen prison: “The reluctance of the authorities to conduct an immediate and effective investigation, as well as their failure to provide minimum security and safety to V. Gaspari during detention, indicate that the torture and degrading treatment that the latter was subjected to had been orchestrated by the state authorities with the purpose of “punishing” Mr. Gaspari and imposing a ‘chilling effect’ on those, who voice their protest against human rights violations, widespread corruption, lack of democratic freedoms that Mr. Gaspari has been devotedly fighting against.
“The interim measure, if [applied by ECHR], will oblige Armenia’s government to take immediate measures to secure Gaspari’s safety and well-being while in custody […] until the measure is lifted,” the statement reads.