Lawyer: Nubarashen jail administration kills prisoners with its regime

PanARMENIAN.Net - The lawyer of prisoner Manuk Semerjyan, who has gone on a hunger strike, Narine Rshtuni said that the administration of Nubarashen jail kills prisoners with its regime every day.

Rshtuni told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter that Semerjyan has serious health problems.

“As a result of three surgeries, my client’s stomach has been removed almost completely, thus, he needs dietary food, which is not provided to him in the jail,” she said.

With respect to the established situation, Rshtuni has applied to the RA President’s Administration, Ombudsman, Ministry of Justice, as well as Yerevan offices of the OSCE and ICRC, but has not received answers.

Rshtuni said that the RA Ministry of Justice disseminated a statement the first day of the declared hunger strike by prisoners, saying that it is aware of the situation and giving promises, which have not been kept up to date.

“Hopefully, the aforementioned structures will react to the situation and take relevant actions,” she said.

According to Rshtuni, during their last meeting Semerjyan told the lawyer: “They neither set me free, nor provide with the needed essential conditions. If they want to kill me, let them do it at once.”

Reports saying that the prisoners of Nubarashen jail have stopped their hunger strike are not true to fact. As a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter learned from a reliable source, Sergey Movsisyan, Manuk Semerjyan, Sergey Petrosyan and Arsen Arushanyan are resolved to continue the hunger strike unless relevant institutions or representatives of international organization come to meet their demands. As it turned out, recently the jail administration welded iron bars inside the cells a meter far from the window, what psychologically suppresses the prisoners, who were deprived of the possibility to approach the window. The reason behind the decision was an escape attempt by one of the prisoners during a walk. Besides, the prisoners have serious health problems and many of them need dietary food. However, the administration continues to neglect all calls to improve the living conditions. Relatives have been barred from bringing uncooked vegetables or grains. As a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter was told, 15 people died because of inhuman living conditions last year.