Tweet
Difference between Armenia's and Georgia's penitentiaries according to
Larisa Alaverdyan
http://lurer.com/?p=43069&l=en
2012-09-22 19:38:35
Recently cadres showing tortures of Georgian prisoners in Tbilisi's
Gldan prison appeared on the internet.
The video shows how the prison watchers subject prisoners to sexual
assault with rubber truncheons and even with a broom. There were also
cadres, how about 20 prison watchers beat prisoners by hands and feet.
These cadres were provided to oppositional TVs in Belgium by a Gldan
prisoner employee, which had been shooting for months.
Lurer.com talked to former human rights defender Larisa Alaverdyan to
find out what's the situation like in Armenia's prisons.
For years I've been dealing with this issue, many times I and the
monitoring group talked on cruel attitude, severe beatings, we also
notice phenomena discrediting their dignity, but never as a member of
NGOs, as a human right defender and as an MP we didn't come across
complaints like those of Gldan prison. I'm very sorry that such
phenomena still exist.
Is it possible that our cameras just didn't shot such cadres?
In all cases, monitoring group has worked in prisons for many years
and I can only say one thing: if the sufferer doesn't speak on it,
we're just to guess. Many different organizations defending human
rights have entered and went out. If such things occurred, they would
inform somehow. People were busy with it, shots have been made, Edik
Baghdasaryan, Avetik Ishkhanyan, Mikael Baghdasaryan spoke on it, but
not a single organization busy with monitoring didn't have such data,
there weren't likewise complaints.
What kind of complaints do they receive?
There are mainly complaints on rooms being overcrowded, when there are
more people than beds in cells, lack of natural light, day-and-night
electrical light is on, but anyway, what refers to cruel attitude and
beating, unfortunately there were cases when we and NGOs noticed and
controlled, particularly Mher Yenokyan was subjected to severe beating
which tried to escape (Lurer.com: Mher Yenokyan studied in Yerevan's
Medical Institute. On his third year of studies he was accused of
murdering his fellow student and was sentenced death penalty, which
later was transformed into life in prison. Mher Yenokyan didn't
confess his crime, and it's ten years he's been fighting for verdict
change.) Discussion was held on Yenokyan's beating in Ministry of
Justice. I want to note, that no matter how much we fix those
phenomena, we'll fail to eradicate them. Right, such cases are
unavoidable, but if they can reveal somehow, they'll proceed.
Can we conclude from Your speech that prisoners' state in our country
is better than those of Georgia?
We talked on it long ago. At the end of the 90s HRD organizations of
Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia had a joint program, within the
framework of which monitoring have been realized in prisons: at that
time we have also gone to central prison in Tbilisi, where the
condition was horrible, it was so bad that when international
organizations asked whom they should help first to improve conditions,
we said: central Tbilisi prison. I saw the horrible situation with my
own eyes, we were terrified, it was as though we were watching films
about prisons of previous era.
Nelly Avetisyan
From: Baghdasarian
Larisa Alaverdyan
http://lurer.com/?p=43069&l=en
2012-09-22 19:38:35
Recently cadres showing tortures of Georgian prisoners in Tbilisi's
Gldan prison appeared on the internet.
The video shows how the prison watchers subject prisoners to sexual
assault with rubber truncheons and even with a broom. There were also
cadres, how about 20 prison watchers beat prisoners by hands and feet.
These cadres were provided to oppositional TVs in Belgium by a Gldan
prisoner employee, which had been shooting for months.
Lurer.com talked to former human rights defender Larisa Alaverdyan to
find out what's the situation like in Armenia's prisons.
For years I've been dealing with this issue, many times I and the
monitoring group talked on cruel attitude, severe beatings, we also
notice phenomena discrediting their dignity, but never as a member of
NGOs, as a human right defender and as an MP we didn't come across
complaints like those of Gldan prison. I'm very sorry that such
phenomena still exist.
Is it possible that our cameras just didn't shot such cadres?
In all cases, monitoring group has worked in prisons for many years
and I can only say one thing: if the sufferer doesn't speak on it,
we're just to guess. Many different organizations defending human
rights have entered and went out. If such things occurred, they would
inform somehow. People were busy with it, shots have been made, Edik
Baghdasaryan, Avetik Ishkhanyan, Mikael Baghdasaryan spoke on it, but
not a single organization busy with monitoring didn't have such data,
there weren't likewise complaints.
What kind of complaints do they receive?
There are mainly complaints on rooms being overcrowded, when there are
more people than beds in cells, lack of natural light, day-and-night
electrical light is on, but anyway, what refers to cruel attitude and
beating, unfortunately there were cases when we and NGOs noticed and
controlled, particularly Mher Yenokyan was subjected to severe beating
which tried to escape (Lurer.com: Mher Yenokyan studied in Yerevan's
Medical Institute. On his third year of studies he was accused of
murdering his fellow student and was sentenced death penalty, which
later was transformed into life in prison. Mher Yenokyan didn't
confess his crime, and it's ten years he's been fighting for verdict
change.) Discussion was held on Yenokyan's beating in Ministry of
Justice. I want to note, that no matter how much we fix those
phenomena, we'll fail to eradicate them. Right, such cases are
unavoidable, but if they can reveal somehow, they'll proceed.
Can we conclude from Your speech that prisoners' state in our country
is better than those of Georgia?
We talked on it long ago. At the end of the 90s HRD organizations of
Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia had a joint program, within the
framework of which monitoring have been realized in prisons: at that
time we have also gone to central prison in Tbilisi, where the
condition was horrible, it was so bad that when international
organizations asked whom they should help first to improve conditions,
we said: central Tbilisi prison. I saw the horrible situation with my
own eyes, we were terrified, it was as though we were watching films
about prisons of previous era.
Nelly Avetisyan
From: Baghdasarian