20:18, 13 January 2018

Rights defenders criticize Armenia's MoJ for high mortality in jails

The high death rate from illnesses in Armenian prisons indicates poor medical care and authorities' inhumane policy, Arthur Sakunts and Aikui Arutyunyan, rights defenders, have stated.

Over the past 8 years, 228 prisoners died in Armenian prisons and colonies, 194 of them – from various diseases. Only in 2017, 17 prisoners died, including 14 from diseases, the Penitentiary Department of the Armenia's Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has reported.

At the same time, the MoJ has announced an increase in the number of inmates who received inpatient treatment: 858 prisoners in 2017 against 779 in 2016.

Arthur Sakunts, the head of the Vanadzor Office of the Helsinki Civil Assembly, insists that the criteria for illnesses should be softened, so that people could be treated when at large, at the initial stage of their grave illnesses.

Aikui Arutyunyan, the chair of the NGO "Rights Defence without Borders", said that the MoJ had announced "bare" statistics, without the inquiry into inmates' deaths. It is caused by the MoJ's desire to show the European partners "the efficiency of the work done," she believes.

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

Author: Tigran Petrosyan

Source: CK correspondent