Yerevan: advocates state need of medical aid to rebels

Aram and Pavlik Manukyan, and Ovannes Arutyunyan, members of the armed group "Sasna Tsrer", need surgeries, their advocates said.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that since July 17, the armed group "Sasna Tsrer", composed of members of the oppositional "Constituent Parliament", kept captured a police building in Yerevan. On July 31, they lay down arms and surrendered.

Pavlik Manukyan, who was arrested on July 31 and transferred from the "Erebuni" Medical Centre to the penitentiary "Hospital for Convicts", continues his hunger strike, Inessa Petrosyan, an advocate of Pavlik and Aram Manukyan, said today.

She noted that Pavlik Manukyan needs surgeries to be conducted in the near future. According to her version, Aram Manukyan also needs one.

Aram and Pavlik Manukyan should be transferred to a civilian hospital. Since they were operated on at the "Erebuni" Medical Centre, they should be treated in the same place and by the same surgeons, Ms Petrosyan has stressed, noting that she would lodge a complaint to the Court of Appeal asking to change the freedom restraint measure of her clients.

Ovannes Arutyunyan, another member of "Sasna Tsrer", also needs a surgery and treatment in a civil hospital, said his advocate Araik Papikyan, adding that he had already applied to the Court of Appeal against Arutyunyan's arrest. "No explanations were given about why he was arrested. Even at hospital, my clients were in isolation and under strict control, which is a gross violation of their rights," said the advocate, who also defends other members of the armed group, Ashot Petrosyan and Araik Khandoyan.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.