Injecting narcotics in the prisoner’s arm?

08/12/2005 Lusine STEPANYAN

20-year old Razmik Sargsyan from Gyumri had remained under the ruins of the earthquake when he was four years old. The hospital doctors saved his life somehow back then, but today his life is once again in danger. But this time the reason for his health problems is not the earthquake, but rather, the regime of the country.

Razmik Sargsyan’s attorneys, doctors and observers held a meeting yesterday. Attorney Zaruhi Postanjyan said that Razmik was having hallucinations. “He would hold his head with both hands and say: ‘This is not me, this is not me.’ and then he would change thirty minutes later. He was acting very strangely.” In Z. Postanjyan’s opinion, Razmik is treated like an animal and it is possible that he is being injected with narcotics secretly. Doctors consider his situation as critical and demand that he be transferred out of the hospital quickly. However, the Nubarashen police department considers R. Sargsyan as healthy. R. Sargsyan’s lawyer Stepan Voskanyan says that he asked Razmik to name his parents in order to check his mental abilities, but the boy stated the names only after trying to remember for a long time. They all claim that there are some people that are killing the boy on purpose. As a matter of fact, head of the police department Z. Postanjyan claims: “I know that the boys are innocent, but…” Postanjyan rejects any offer, demand or medical help suggested by the doctors and attorneys, saying: “Let them tell me what do and then I will allow that.” The attorneys claim that the head of the police department, the judges and prosecutors are doing what military prosecutor Gagik Jhangiryan says. Just a couple of days ago, the head of the isolation cell informed the lawyers that he would not be responsible if Razmik died because he is the one that chose to die. “If Razmik stays alive, then the prosecutors of the Military prosecutor’s office will be subjected to punishments for their violations. During the first instance court hearing, Razmik told the court how they had hurt him and said that the whole floor of the room where he had testified was flooded with blood. After he refused to take the blame for the murder on himself, they forced him to lick his own blood off the floor. We wanted to lead an investigation on traces, but they objected because the floor was parquet, the blood would probably still be there and everything would be revealed,” said Stepan Voskanyan. The attorneys had presented the letters written by Razmik during his army service to psychologist Elda Green. After getting acquainted with the letters, the psychologist said that the author of those letters could not be capable of committing murder. In response to the question as to what Razmik is thinking about by going on a hunger strike, Z. Postanjyan said: “I talk for a long time with him, but he is no longer able to talk, think. He only says one thing: ‘I have no other choice’. He does not believe in justice and does not care what will become of him. However, he does suffer by seeing his two friends because he was the one that gave a false testimony.”