A convict has been beaten at Vanadzor Detention Facility

In September of current year, an inhabitant from Vanadzor has witnessed some events at the detention facility while having a visit with her husband.
 
“I had a long meeting with my husband.  The next day loud conversations and threatening voices started bothering us. Some people in uniforms standing in the corridor were talking about their evil intentions to put some Armen into trouble to finally get rid of him”, - recalls Edita Pashinyan. She also told how those people had broken the door of the neighboring room and then beaten the person inside it. “Their loud voice and curses could reach our room, while the man was asking to talk calmly in order to understand each other’’-, continued Edita. After the incident, she reached out to help the family next door. “The victim was having a nosebleed, his wife was at a loss for word, while the child was screaming incessantly.”

A group of convicts in Vanadzor detention facility also testify that Armen Petrosyan has been severely beaten in front of his wife and under-age child. “The convict asked them to stop beating and explain calmly what had happened’’. Armen Petrosyan was sentenced to a 4-year imprisonment. He has still 1,6 years to stay in prison before he gets his freedom. The time for his release on parole  defined by law expired.

“One of the employees from the Vanadzor detention facility promised to support us for 0, which he had received via my husband’s parents, but he did not keep his promise. My husband got angry and then he  quarreled with him, when the independent committee rejected to grant him release on parole”, - says Hasmik - convict Armen Petrosyan’s wife. 

During a long meeting, Hasmik has learnt from her husband that the employee of the prison sworn and promised to send him home from the court on September 10 provided  that he stopped demanding the money back and mentioning about it at all. The next day he handed a bottle of vodka to her husband to confirm his promise. “I was surprised but then I believed. My husband took a sip, after a while the talks of a group  in the corridor attracted our attention. A few minutes later, we were commanded to open the door. At that point my husband started pulling the door to keep them from opening it. While some people threatened to break the door in case we did not open it and then used bad words.  They broke the door open just in front of our eyes.  They threw my husband to the ground with a group of employees kicking and punching him. My husband asked them to leave him alone and explain, not to swear and degrade him at our presence. Ialmost fainted out of fear, I did not even realize to console my child that was also screaming and crying out of fear. Since that day, my child has been suffering from excessive urination at nights, he suddenly wakes up with fear and says absurd words about his father being beaten. Hardly had the fight stopped, when the detention facility employee entered and took back the bottle of vodka with him and threatened “we’ll see who you are complaining against, who you are demanding your money from, I’ll see how you are going to cope with this”- shares Hasmik.

Then she heard him order to open the next-door room and let the people inside come and help.

In spite of this, the law enforcement bodies don’t see violations of rights in their activities. According to them, the convict sworn, said bad words while being drunk, resisted, damaged the door so they had to use physical pressure on him to prevent all that.

In this regard, a criminal case was brought in the Investigative department of Lori region. 

“Are the detention facility employees guilty? Have they performed illegal actions or not? Has there been a fact of bribery or not, the investigation will prove all these. However, the fact that the convict could not take a bottle of vodka to his cell without the staff awareness is irrefutable”,- explains Helsinki Citizens` Assembly- Vanadzor  lawyer Araik Zalyan.

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