Prisoner died two days before release in Armenia

  30 March 2016    Read: 2808
Prisoner died two days before release in Armenia
Mkhitar Sargsyan, a Nubarashen inmate who was found hanged in the prison showers on March 1, was to be set free in two days, AzVision.az reports citing Armenian media.
The 35-year-old prisoner was one of civic activist Vardges Gaspari`s cellmates during the activist`s week-long stay in jail, and following his release from Nubarashen, Gaspari announced in a conversation with reporters that Sargsyan had not committed suicide but had actually been murdered for not torturing him “assiduously enough.”

Speaking to Epress.am, Sargsyan`s widow, Satenik Hovsepyan, claimed that her husband had had nothing to do with the ill-treatment and torture Gaspari had been subjected to in jail, and “was killed because he refused to take the blame for it.”

“[My husband] had no reason to kill himself; I still don’t believe it. I guess [prison authorities] told him to say he had beaten Gaspari. He`d say to me he was not going to take the blame for something he didn`t do, so maybe they pressured him, beat him for refusing to do as he was told. A person who`s in prison for only a week wouldn`t have committed suicide” Hovsepyan insisted.

Sargsyan, as told by his widow, had been sentenced to a three-month jail term for slapping a 12-year-old kid “a couple of times” during a dispute in their yard. Taking into account the 57 days the defendant had spent in pre-trial custody, the court issued a final sentence of 1 month and 3 days which came into force on February 1.

“I spoke to him just few hours before [his death]. He was in a really good mood; he asked if the kids had eaten and then said to take care of ourselves until he comes back. They say he went to the showers in the evening where he was subsequently found hanged. I don`t believe it,” Hovsepyan said.

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