The MPs’ visit to the Yerevan correctional facility (commonly called “the KGB basement”) has gotten, in my opinion, inadequate public reaction. Some people said it was wrong that
the MPs visited, among other prisoners, also Nairi and Karen Hunanyan sentenced to life in prison. It seems to me that this discontent is not appropriate – it would have been much stranger, if they, appearing in that correctional facility, hadn’t visited those two criminals. Perhaps, in that case, doubts would have been expressed that the main terrorists of 10/27 are not in “their proper places.” If the mass media draw far-reaching conclusions from the position of a table at every party, they will surely draw such conclusions from visiting “the KGB basement” and not meeting with the criminals.
Now imagine that members of the Storting, the Norwegian parliament, decide to visit Anders Breivik and find out about his prison conditions. Will it become a subject of heated discussions? It is unlikely. Because people in Norway understand that a criminal must be isolated from the society – that is what punishment is for and it is not for taking revenge on him, regardless of the fact what a horrible crime he committed. By the way, I haven’t heard a considerable part of the Norwegian society complain about condemning Breivik who killed 77 people to only 21 years in prison.
Not only ordinary citizens, but also powers that be lack sober, healthy attitude toward convicts. I first of all mean the Minister of Justice who must set a good example for us and, why not, also propagate how the society should treat criminals serving their sentences. Whereas there was certain malice and contempt toward convicts in his conversation with journalists yesterday. According to the Minister, it turns out that some of them deliberately pierce their lips, in order to sew their mouths, if necessary. In this sense, Mr. Tovmasyan made a comparison with women piercing their ears to wear earrings. The motives – why convicts go on hunger strike, cut the little finger or sew their mouths – are also far from struggling for justice, in the Minister’s opinion. Whereas who else, if not a statesman who holds that office, should go into the issue of convicts, try to understand them? I don’t think that it will be possible to carry out “pro-European” reforms in the justice system, particularly in the prison system, with such sentiment and mentality. A lawyer revealed during a conversation with me lately the psychological mechanism that explains why people become a prosecutor more willingly than a counselor – it is always easier to blame.
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ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
