UNPRECEDENTED SEARCH AT VARDASHEN PRISON

Lragir
Oct 31 2007
Armenia

On October 29 Monday an unprecedented search took place at the prison
of Vardashen. The security of the department of penitentiaries of
the Ministry of Justice led by the head of the same department,
Lieutenant Colonel Varujan Yeghiazaryan searched the cells of the
prison. 7 officers took part in the search, including three colonels,
8 incognito representatives of security agencies in plain clothes,
15 masked special operation troops of the Police, the committee for
support of Jirair Sefilyan and Vardan Malkhasyan informs. Inmates
serving a long sentence at Vardashen say they have never seen such
a demonstrative search.

"The search was serious only in the room where Jirair Sefilyan and
Vardan Malkhasyan are. However, nothing illegal was found there.

Afterwards V. Yeghiazaryan provoked an argument with Vardan Malkhasyan,
stating that he uses inappropriate wording, there are illegal things
in the room, and all the five inmates in the room must receive a
warning. If the warning is set down in the record of the convicts,
they will have no chance for conditional sentence as long as the
warning is lifted," runs the release of the Committee.

The authors of the news release say there is every reason to think
it was a show with mask to warn Vardan Malkhasyan and to warn Jirair
Sefilyan for the second time not to have the "independent commission"
discuss a conditional sentence. Meanwhile, a few days are left until
the deadline of making its agenda for November.

"It is not clear whether this "mask show" is effective because nothing
was found on Sefilyan and Malkhasyan. At the moment, there is no
reliable information whether the warnings were included in their
personal records or not. However, due to the group warning during
the search another inmate in the same room may be denied conditional
sentence. There is information that one of the inmates was warned
who kept an illegal item. Apparently, the purpose is to spoil the
relations of Jirair Sefilyan and Vardan Malkhasyan with the other
inmates," the Committee of Support thinks.