Armenian prisoners on hunger strike sew up mouths

A1+ web site
11 Jun 04

11 June: Several prisoners at Nubarashen prison have been on hunger
strike for several days. Some of them have even stitched up their
mouths. Ara Sagatelyan, spokesman of the Justice Ministry, has
confirmed this information.

We failed to find out the exact number of the hunger
strikers. Sagatelyan said that they were under the supervision of
doctors, as the law requires. “In general, it is not an extraordinary
event for prisoners in any country to go on hunger strike, since it
is a method of attracting attention and expressing opinions to which
they periodically resort.”

There is a group of public observers, who has the right to visit
prisons at any time without prior warning, Sagatelyan said. “The
criminal procedural system is quite transparent now,” Ara Sagatelyan
said.

The hunger strikers are demanding that their charges and convictions
be reviewed.

Asked if their lives were in danger, Ara Sagatelyan replied:
“Nobody will die from a hunger strike, since when doctors decide to
force-feed them, as is the case across the world, the hunger strikers
will be force-fed.”

Sagatelyan also said that the hunger strikers were ordinary criminals,
and cases of hunger strikers are on the increase because the press
pays attention to them.