The life of a Nubarashen Penitentiary Institution convict is at risk; he has diseases incompatible with the sentence
18:54, July 13, 2018 | News, Own news | Detention Facilities
By the court decision of November 26, 2016, A. O., who in 2011 was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment on a charge of murder, was exempted from further service of the sentence due to health issues that were developed in the penitentiary institution and were incompatible with the sentence. However, one year later, on November 9, 2017, after appeals being filed with higher courts, the court of first instance again ruled to seize him, and the higher courts left the decision unchanged.
Following this, A. O. was under investigation, and on July 12, 2018, he was found and detained. Now he is in Nubarashen Penitentiary Institution.
Apart from the fact that A. O.’s state of health is incompatible with the sentence and he may be subjected to degrading treatment in the penitentiary institution, Nubarashen Penitentiary Institution, where the convict was transferred to, is notorious for its humiliating conditions for holding convicts, is overpopulated and lacks relevant medical personnel that would be able to provide A. O. with medical assistance in the case of illness.
The Group of Public Monitors Implementing Supervision over the Criminal-executive Institutions and Bodies of the RA Ministry of Justice has alerted on multiple occasions about the poor conditions of holding convicts in Nubarashen Penitentiary Institution.
Before A. O. being found and taken to Nubarashen Penitentiary Institution, HCA Vanadzor advocate Arayik Zalyan, A. O.’s defender, applied to the European Court of Human Rights with regard to the issue of undertaking urgent measures.
In the application filed with the ECtHR on February 5, 2018, he mentioned that the courts, being well aware of A. O.’s existing diseases and the fact that the diagnosis complied with the List (established by the RA Government) of Severe Diseases Incompatible with Service of Sentence, did not rule to exempt him from service of the sentence.
The European Court considered the application premature, as domestic remedies were not fully exhausted at that moment.
After finding and detaining A. O. by the decision of the court on July 12, 2018, his defender A. Zalyan applied to the ECtHR again today, on July 13, 2018, and invited the Court’s attention to the fact that the RA penitentiary system does not have sufficient resources to provide sufficient medical assistance to A. O. and other persons with similar diseases.
He mentioned that depriving A. O. of freedom might even lead to death accompanied by ill treatment and torture and asked to examine the motion of February 5, 2018.