The decay of cells

In Armenia, pre -trial detention and prisons are rapidly dilapidated. This, however, does not interfere with sending even women with infants there

The arrest of Liana Harutyunyan, the mother of three children, who was sent to a pre -trial detention center for transferring documents along with an eight -month -old baby, caused a storm of indignation in Armenia. According to investigators, Harutyunyan contributed to the illegal migration of 16 citizens of India, delaying their documents. The lawyer of Zarui Polojyan clarifies that initially his client was a witness in the case, and ten months later she became the accused. The court of first instance appointed house arrest, but the owner of the apartment refused to provide housing for serving the measure. Then Judge Arshak Medevosyan decided to conclude Harutyunyan into custody for three months. Particular indignation caused a decision to send Liana with an eight -month -old daughter to the pre -trial detention center of the Abovyan women's colony directly from the courtroom. Two other children remained under the care of his father. The rest of the defendants in this case remain free.

The reason for the arrest, according to the lawyer, was the failure of Harutyunyan at the hearing when she tried to change the public defender appointed to her. At the last meeting, the woman did not receive an official notification at all.

Already a day after the transfer of Liana Harutyunyan with her daughter, the lawyer raised the alarm with her daughter in the women's colony. The child has sharply worsened health: temperature, rash throughout the body, wheezing during breathing. Polzhanyan directly connects this with completely inappropriate conditions of detention. In the cell, as she noted, there is no refrigerator for storing baby food and there is no way to cook food.

“Why was there no warm water at night so that the mother could wash the child and avoid rashes? Where is the refrigerator to save the food fresh? The child needs a diet, but where to cook food if there are no conditions? Is the bed for the baby intended, is there a stroller? Mother in a shock state was forced to hold the child in her arms all the time, ”the lawyer describes the conditions.

Polojyan published a letter to the former convicted person who was serving his term in the ABOVYAN WIU, accompanied by photography from the institution. The letter describes in detail the difficult conditions of the content:

• chambers with an area of 10 × 5 meters, without hot water;

• To get boiling water, the prisoners ask relatives to bring a plastic heater - the so -called cooking, which is taken away by duty officers in the evening, so it is impossible to warm the food at night;

• There is no normal bathroom - instead of it, “adapted pit”;

• the floors are lined with cold tiles;

• Walks are allowed only once a day in the courtyard with concrete walls and mesh awnings;

• white walls, windows without curtains, dry mesh beds and half -stranded mattresses;

• It is allowed to wash only twice a week.

“The baby cannot be in a cell where even adults can’t stand it,” the letter published on the post -joan on Facebook ( belongs to the company META, recognized in Russia as an Estrem organization, says its activities in the Russian Federation are prohibited - ed. ).

At the same time, the Criminal Executive Service (UIS) of the Ministry of Justice of Armenia officially refuted reports of the "inhuman conditions" of the content of Liana Harutyunyan and her child in the insulator. According to the agency, the camera is completely repaired, hot water is available at any time of the day. For the child, the necessary nutrition was provided: mashed potatoes, vegetables and milk powder.

“Sanitary and domestic norms are observed, and the conditions meet the requirements for the maintenance of a mother with a young child,” says the UIS.

Despite the assurances of the department, after a medical examination, Harutyunyan and his daughter were taken to a civil hospital. The lawyer believes that operational hospitalization has become possible only thanks to public pressure. In a child, intestinal disease was diagnosed, which, according to the post -rod, the attending physician associates with possible poor -quality nutrition.

“No matter what excuses explain the situation, the fact remains: the child came healthy, and received intestinal infection in a day. So, the problem exists, ”the lawyer emphasizes.

It should be noted that a member of the monitoring group for the penitentiary institutions of Armenia Zara Ovannysyan, who visited the women's colony in the Abovyan WIU, in the commentary of Novaya Gazeta confirmed the position of the Ministry of Justice about the “favorable conditions of detention”, especially in cells with mothers and children.

According to her, a photograph published by a lawyer, which depicts difficult conditions, actually shows a punishment cell, and not a camera: “They do not contain children in the kartskere, and he does not belong to the Abovyan WIU. The expert explained that household appliances - refrigerators, slabs - in the penitentiary institutions are not included in the list of permitted issues, and usually these issues are resolved through relatives of prisoners. Preparation in the cells is not provided - the prisoners are given portioned power three times a day, and usually there is no need to store food. “And the content of babies in the cells is a rare phenomenon, usually children are left with guardians,” adds Ovannisyan.

In general, according to Ovannisyan, the arrests of women with children in Armenia are extremely rare. Most often, such situations arise when a woman goes to prison for a long time during pregnancy, and the child is born already in conclusion.

One of the former prisoners of WIU Nubarashen, who asked not to call his name, recalls life in prison in a commentary to Novaya Gazeta. According to him, the conditions were “terrible”: in cells with an area of about 20 square meters. m (approximately 4.5 × 4.5 m) simultaneously lived 15-16 people with only 12 beds. We slept in turn. Water, says the interlocutor of the “new”, was served strictly according to the schedule. In the "rich" chambers, the prisoners put a tank with a plane - a heater for hot water, the rest fuel water with a boiler.

“Antisanitaria was catastrophic - cockroaches everywhere, with whom it was almost impossible to fight. The toilet was directly in the cell, which gave rise to the tradition of not going to “sending” (toilet) during meals. The prisoners also bathed in the toilet - right above the impetus, ”recalls the prisoner.

According to the estimates and decisions of the government, there are three penitentiary institutions-Nubarashen, a hospital for convicts and the Yerevan-Kentron WIU (all in Yerevan)-are subject to closed due to extremely unfavorable conditions. For the second year, the authorities have been trying to find funds for the construction of a new prison, but even the general plan is not yet. These institutions, as Ovannisyan notes, are extremely dilapidated and do not comply with sanitary and domestic norms. Most were built in Soviet times according to standards that now no longer comply with modern realities. For example, in WIU “Yerevan - Kentron” the toilet and the washbasin are not separated from the sleeping area, which violates the elementary norms of hygiene. In the hospital for convicts, a particularly difficult situation in the psychiatric department. In addition, the building is located in the city center and does not ensure security, the human rights activist said.

The Armavir is considered less dilapidated - the only prison built during the years of independence of Armenia. However, the conditions are far from the norms there: stuffiness or dampness in the cells, part of the building was corroded, and the rooms for employees are completely deprived of windows.

“You cannot keep people in such conditions. This is a clear inhuman attitude towards people in custody, ”the expert emphasizes.

However, in the case of Liana Harutyunyan, the main problem is not the conditions of detention, but the very fact of arrest as a preventive measure in the conditions of the absence of a judicial verdict, Ovannisyan believes. She emphasizes that in such cases, more humane alternatives are possible: a non -departure subscription, a key or house arrest. However, in Armenia, arrest is often used precisely as the main preventive measure.

According to the penitentiary service for 2024, 2686 people were contained in the penitentiary institutions: 1285 convicts and 1401 detained before a court decision. Compared to 2023, when 1317 people were in custody, and the convicts - 1152, there is an increase in the number of people awaiting court.

After the velvet revolution of 2018, the security forces in Armenia behaved much more carefully for some time. Even without subsequent reforms, they understood that their previous illegal actions could receive a political and legal assessment, and they themselves could be fired or prosecuted, the head of the Helsinki Association Nina Karapetyants noted in the commentary to Novaya Gazeta. “We were surprised that the judges who previously turned the courts into notarial offices - put prints without studying the materials and sent people under the arrest on the paper of the investigator,“ suddenly began to make normal, adequate decisions, ”Karapetyans recalls.

However, soon, when it became clear that responsibility would not follow, the judges returned to their former practices. Many began to look for new "owners" and adapt to circumstances. Since unscrupulous elements prevail in the system, the judges are vulnerable and easily controlled, devoid of independence, the expert says.

Karapetyants notes that the case of Liana Harutyunyan is a striking example of this scheme: if the investigator brings a claim for arrest to the court, the judge is almost obliged to satisfy him. The judges themselves are afraid that otherwise criminal cases can be initiated against them, they will be deprived of a license, so they prefer to “play by the rules” for their own security.

“Some judges in personal conversations admit that those who resist the investigation and reject unreasonable arrests undergo pressure and checks in all instances in an attempt to find corruption violations,” Karapetyans concluded.

Armine Martirosyan