Some 80 per cent of the employees at the detention center work one full day then have three days off, former President Robert Kocharyan said at a court hearing on Friday when asked by Judge Anna Danibekyan to describe the conditions of the penitentiary facility.

Kocharyan remarked that the time of penitentiary employees out of their working hours is not supervised by anyone which exposes them to a risk of contracting an infection. Since most of them are young there is a greater chance that their disease can be asymptomatic, added Kocharyan.

“A person can be infected but have no idea about it and continue coming to work. 90 per cent of them are young people aged 22-35. I am now along in the detention facility yet there is still interaction with the facility staff. It is impossible to exercise social distancing in these building conditions not to mention the lack of air conditioning,” Kocharyan said.

The former president went on informing that his meal is delivered from outside and there is no control how and in what conditions it is prepared.

Kocharyan’s lawyer Hayk Alumyan, in turn, noted he had turned to the Ombudsman over the concerns raised by the president.