Razmik’s health is still in danger

25/12/2005

Yesterday, Karen Hakobyan (“Hope” NGO), Gohar Armenakyan (“Soldier Defense Committee” mother’s initiative group), Seda Melikyan (“Spiritual Armenia” NGO), artist Harutyun Simonyan and Lala Aslikyan gave a report of Razmik Sargsyan’s health status to the Nubarashen police department. The status is the following:

“Despite Razmik’s critical health condition, the second instance court presided by M. Arghamanyan held a court hearing on December 1, however, it was interrupted (then later postponed for an uncertain time period) due to the brisk change in Razmik’s health. According to the ambulatory doctor who immediately came to the court, Razmik needed to be “escorted to the hospital immediately”, however, the police transferred him to the isolation cell once again. The four independent doctors that visited the isolation cell stated that he needs to be fully checked up on and must stay in the hospital. On that same day, Razmik was quickly “examined” by professor of the State Medical University E. Nazaretyan (in front of the representatives of the NGOs and journalists), who had been called from the isolation cell and he considered the boy’s condition as normal. The professor said that Razmik simply needs to be forced to eat through the means of injections and other forms.

Razmik Sargsyan’s situation remains unstable. The Nubarashen police department violates his right to get treatment. Lawyers are getting ready to bring an action against the doctors of the isolation cell. There was an emergency on December 19, when Razmik’s relatives, attorneys and NGO representatives found out that Razmik had sewn his mouth in order to not be fed and they quickly made their way to the Nubarashen police department. Razmik was in pain; he said that he had bled in the buttocks area. Isolation cell doctor Gor Khachatryan, however, claimed that Razmik’s situation is “good” and “he eats very well”; then he has offended the doctors. He did not explain why the health status documents had been missing from Razmik’s health file. The NGO representatives that had visited the isolation cell saw how Razmik suffered from pain. They have found out that he is given tranquilizers and that this is not stated in his file. Head of the “Soldier Defense Committee” initiative group Gohar Armenakyan visited the isolation cell with the purpose of convincing Razmik to stop the hunger strike and transfer to a hospital. Razmik agreed to stop the hunger strike relying on the support of the NGOs to follow up on the fair legal proceedings. Head of the prisoners’ department S. Hovhannisyan said to the attorneys that he has no reason to transfer Razmik to the hospital; that he is fine and does not need to be treated (he based this on Nazaretyan’s opinion). The only “compromise” that Hovhannisyan finally made, was to transfer to the medical center of the isolation cell and examine the boy there (X-ray, encephalography, etc.) and the defense team is going to take care of those expenses. Let’s recall that Razmik has already been in the medical center once and the head of the center is the aforementioned doctor-humanist Gor Khachatryan. However, yesterday, the head of the prisoners’ administration did not go along with the plan of transferring Razmik to the medical center for examination. “I only allow him to take an X-ray,” said Hovhannisyan and he mentioned the name of the polyclinic that he wishes to take Razmik; meanwhile, Razmik’s attorneys had already come to terms with the “Diagnostic” center for doing necessary medical examinations. Basically, according to the attorneys, not providing Razmik Sargsyan with the necessary medical treatment is another way of showing brutality on a psychological and physical level, however, in this case, with the participation of the Ministry of Justice. Journalists and NGO representatives are worried about the “medical treatment” that is not controlled in the isolation cell.”