LIFE-TERM PRISONERS GO ON HUNGER STRIKE AGAIN
Ararat Davtyan

HETQ
2009/04/06 | 19:04

Important society

Arman Iskandaryan and Haroutyun Khachatryan, life-term prisoners
of Nubarashen Correctional Institution, go on a hunger strike for
already five days. Moreover, the latter had even sewed up his lips
to show that he is deprived of any right to speak out.

"We are not only deprived of any right to speak, we are deprived of
everything. They don’t give a damn about us," Haroutyun Khachatryan
said. He said that for many years he had kept writing letters to the
authorities and to various instances, but the officials of the prison
take his letters form him and do not send them to the addressees.

"It’s already five years that I am in this prison. The policemen beat
me up, blackmailed, deprived me of a lawyer and without any explanation
made me accept the responsibility of a murder I didn’t commit. They
sentenced me. I turned to the Court of Appeal, but Koryun Piloyan,
the same prosecutor who was alleging me at the court, ordered the
convoy guards kick me and beat me up with the their submachine guns and
electric shocks. I barely have few teeth in my mouth. They have broken
all of my upper teeth. I constantly suffer from acute headaches. My
ears buzz all the time. They forced me to write an application and
to call back my appeal to the Appeal Court, as they threatened to
kill me by severe beating," he said.

"They brought me to the Nubarashen colony all beaten and in torn
clothes. But nobody drew a report on my condition. I have written
many letters to our high ranking officials, but they wouldn’t send
my letters. In 2005 the officials of this prison began beating me up
for constantly writing letters. They kept telling me to shut up and
get accustomed to the conditions.

I had to sew up my eyes and mouth for 16 times. I have even swallowed
an iron mug handle, but neither a doctor visited me nor I was taken
to the doctor. Till now I have no idea whether that piece of iron
is still in my body or not. I have cut my throat, my hands and my
stomach for several times because of the pressure they were exerting
on me. I have gone on hunger strike for about 20 times. They would
still leave me in the same cell with people who were eating in front
of my eyes. Last year, they kept me in that condition for 10 days,"
Haroutyun Khachatryan told Hetq.

He stated that even if they don’t beat and torture him in the prison
at present, they still exert psychological pressure on him. "I
write application, but they don’t show me the receipts of the sent
letters, so that I can be sure that they send my letters. I wrote
my last letter to the President on March 24. They again did not send
that. The policemen entered our cell, began ransacking and trampling
down my clothes. I told them if they want to ransack my things, they
should do it in a proper manner. They told me I get what I deserve.

I had to go on another hunger strike and sew my mouth on March 31. They
told me they have sent my letter and showed me the receipt. I removed
the stitches but I won’t stop the hunger strike until the journalists,
the officials of relevant instances visit us and see how they torture
us. We have lots of thing to tell about," Haroutyun Khachatryan.

Another life-term prisoner on hunger strike Armen Iskandaryan demands
that they take him to "The Hostipal for Convicts" Crminal Executional
Institution.

"I have been serving in Nagorno Karabagh in 1994-96. I was wounded
during a fire exchange with Azeries in December of 1996. I am a second
grade disabled. The grenade launcher hit my left leg and they cut
that from below my knee.

I am in the Nubarashen Colony for a murder for already eight years. In
2004 the cut part of my leg became inflamed and swelled. I turned
to them for several times and they switched on systems here, but
it didn’t help. They had to take me to "The Hospital for Convicts,"
where they again cut my leg 3 centimeters above. Samvel Hovhannisyan
was the head of the Criminal Executive Department then. He visited
me and told that I will be transferred to Noubarashen only after they
make a new ammunition leg for me. But I was taken back to the prison
even before my wounds were healed.

The man who made my ammunition leg worked in the prison’s
conditions. According to him, that’s why it is not exact and
doesn’t match my leg. My ammunition leg is not comfortable. I have
to remove and wear that again for several times a day, so that I can
move somehow.

I ask them to take me to the hospital. They tell me in response not
to wear the ammunition leg for about 20 days, until the wounds are
healed. It’s merely impossible to move in the cell with a walking
stick. I have to turn for help to my fellow convicts. How long can
I survive by depending on them all the time, I wonder?

Last year I had to go on a hunger strike. They were supposed to
transfer me to hospital but again they didn’t.

They’re arguing that I deliberately mutilate my own leg. Go ahead and
ask all of my co-prisoners – am I nuts to torture myself on purpose.

At the moment my foot is in a horrible condition again, it’s
swollen and wounded. That’s why I’m on a hunger strike. The benefit
is that I don’t move a lot and there’s no more need to go to the
restroom. Prosthetics tell me that unless my leg is completely cured
I can’t wear an artificial leg. All I want is to be hospitalized,
my leg to be normally treated under more or less bearable conditions
and then to be transferred back to jail. I know they’ll take me to the
hospital when it will be too late already, and they’ll have to amputate
a decent chunk of what’s left of my leg," said Arman Iskandarian. His
wife says that for years she had been writing letters to the President,
Prime Minister, as well as the Ministers of Defense, Healthcare and
Justice. However, these letters either remained unanswered or got
transferred to the Correctional Department, which told my husband
not to wear the ammunition leg for a few days, until it recovers.

"Well, it won’t work that way. Once he refused to wear his artificial
leg so he can use it during the three-day visitation: he didn’t want
the kid to see him with a missing leg. But the consequences were as
usual, the leg got swollen, began bleeding, and he was having yet
another nervous breakdown," says Emma Mkrtchian.

She said she had tried a few days ago to talk to Ashot Giziryan, the
press secretary of the Correctional Department. "But the secretary
refused to transfer the call. She said that the chief ought not to
be bothered with issues related to convicts," Emma Mkrtchian said.

For two days now, Hetq’s attempts to get in touch with Arsen Babayan,
the press secretary of the Correctional Department, but his phone
is disconnected. Since last year we’ve been sending letters to the
Minister of Justice asking them to let us meet with the two convicts,
including Harutiun Khachatrian. In a letter sent just ten days ago,
we had added Arman Iskandarian’s name. We haven’t received an answer
to recent letter yet, but the previous ones had been declined for
various excuses.