Recently we visited the prison of Abovyan city where there are teenage and women prisoners. Armen Sargsyan (aged 15) was jailed for trying to save his parents and little brother from hunger.
Armen hasn’t beaten anyone, he hasn’t stolen a car and neither has killed anyone. In order to save his family from hunger he stole aluminum from his neighbors and sold it for 2000 dram. The case of Armen is a story, where the conscience of the judge could save a whole family. He realized that he had done wrong, but he said that he had no choice. They imprisoned Armen for a 2 year and six months period.
This case happened in 2004, when Armen was in the 8th grade. When we visited him he was confused and ashamed to speak: he thought we were police officers and were going to cheat him and bring a case against him again. He was very suspicious and afraid to speak. Even after we tried to make him sure that we were journalists, he didn’t believe us. Armen was afraid of police. “Sometimes I could find a physical job, I went to carry heavy things and they paid me 1000 dram for that work a day. My brothers are small, they are school children, and my parents are sick. They can’t go to the hospital and get treatment, because they have no money. They are both in bed. I am the only person in our family that can work and bring some money home”, said Armen. His father had worked at the city administration office and because of this they allowed his family to live in the hotel of Berd city, which was in very bad conditions. They lived in a small room for some time, later they were obligated to leave the room, because some people wanted to build a café there. His family now lives on Mashtots street in Berd city, in a wooden small house. After living in the wooden house Armen could not stand to see the pain and hunger of his family. He decided to do something to find food for his family. In this case the only thing he could do in that city was to find aluminum and sell it for money. He decided to steal the caldron of his neighbor and sell to get money. He bought food with that 2000 dram. His neighbor (Mekhak Ajdinyan) went to the local police station and asked them to find the thief. Armen says that he realized that he had done wrong and took the caldron back and returned it to the owner, but nothing changed. The judge of the first instance court of Tavoush region Zoya Zakinyan made a decision to apply 20000 dram penalty on Armen and apply two years of conditional duress, but not to jail him. Armen had to pay Mekhak 20000 dram, but he couldn’t find a way to do that or where to find a job to get money. Armen said that he had to pay that money within 15 days, but he couldn’t do that, and police officers called him and said that if he didn’t pay that money they would jail him. Armen was already a student of an educational institute in Berd then: “I hoped to become a technical specialist and work on a tractor and make a living”, said Armen.
Armen says that the judge, Zoya Zakinyan, periodically called him and threatened him by saying that if he didn’t pay that money they would jail him. Armen was so afraid of being jailed, that de decided to do everything to find that money in order not to go to jail. He didn’t find any means to find that money and decided to risk again in order not to be a prisoner. He stole aluminum again for the purpose to pay this money and be free (he stole a caldron again). The owner of this caldron found his caldron and the purchaser said who had sold that to him. “I was kept in the local police station for three days, I had no news from home, my parents were sick and my brothers were small. They gave me food for 450 dram a day. I like sweet, I asked them to give me sweets, but they didn’t. Later they brought me here and it is already six days that I am here”. It is already six days that Armen is jailed, but his parents don’t know about this. His parents don’t know where their son is. Armen worries about his parents and his brothers much. His absence may be dangerous for his family. We asked Armen whether he liked the food there and he answered: “Yes, they give soup and food three times a day, I eat here, but I had nothing to eat at home. Yes, we eat well here”.
There are a lot of cases in our days that the sons of top officials and rich people beat people and make other crimes, but no one knows how these legal proceedings are stopped and why they are not punished on the base of the law. Armen Sargsyan, who is jailed in the prison of Abovyan, is not a son of rich people, but the only person that is able to work in their family and the only hope for the family.