The National Assembly human rights protection and public affairs standing committee and European integration standing committee decided as early as in September to visit correctional facilities, to get acquainted with the conditions, in order to gather as comprehensive information as possible for the parliamentary hearings to take place on November 20. Today members of the two above-mentioned committees visited the Nubarashen correctional facility for that purpose. Naira Zohrabyan, a Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) MP, informed about the problems revealed during the meeting and the actions to be taken during a conversation with www.aravot.am. According to Ms. Zohrabyan, firstly, they visited Tigran Arakelyan, an Armenian National Congress (ANC) activist. N. Zohrabyan said with regard to his sentence, “I think Tigran Arakelyan’s sentence was unfair. I would like the Court of Appeals that will consider the case tomorrow to make a fair decision, although I am not that optimistic about that issue.”
A set of protests have taken place in the Nubarashen correctional facility recently – one of the convicts cut his little finger, sewed his eyelids and lips, went on a hunger strike. The members of the National Assembly committees met also with them and were told about their problems. In this regard, N. Zohrabyan said, “The main complaints are related to unfair trials, which are not the task of the two mentioned committees. Our task is to find out in what conditions they are kept, what complaints they have. If there really are questionable verdicts, we will raise them with the competent bodies too.” The members of the National Assembly committees also had to visit Serob Bozoyan, a suspect in the so-called “balloon case.” However, as N. Zohrabyan informed us, he is not under arrest, since his case is under the Supreme Court’s consideration. However, N. Zohrabyan said regarding the verdict against him, “The case is the focus of our attention. Considering the case merely from the human and moral perspectives, I think the verdict brought in against Serob Bozoyan should be revised. The person suffers from cancer, he has minors under his care. And generally the extent of his accountability should be clarified.” According to N. Zohrabyan, the most serious problem is that cells are overloaded, overpopulated, which has been mentioned in the reports of international organizations too. N. Zohrabyan also raised another important issue, “Why isn’t it possible to use a room in the correctional facility so that a person can spend those few minutes of visiting time on talking on Skype. We will claim that it is provided for by the law.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
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