Three Life Sentenced Prisoners Declare Hunger Strike: What is the Reason?

Human rights defender Zhanna Andreasian wrote on her Facebook page: “Three life sentenced prisoners have declared a hunger strike. It is the 15th day of hunger strike for life sentenced Aram Petrosyan, who was joined yesterday by Armen Ter Sahakyan and Alik Grigoryan. Their protest is against the arbitrary and illegal actions of the prosecution.”

The life prisoners, who have been serving their sentence in a closed regime for over 20 years, are supposed to be transferred to open or semi-open regimes by the law enacted in 2019. This has also been done in the case of these hunger strikers, but the prosecution is suspending those decisions in a manner that contains sadistic elements, waiting for the life prisoners to breathe a bit of freedom before bringing them back to the previous closed regime.

The prosecution does not provide justifications, while it has plenty of fake data at hand. The inhumane treatment, breaking and degrading a person is the normal operating mode of the prosecution, and no one holds them accountable. Will the Prime Minister one day ask the Prosecutor General why they ruthlessly destroy a person?”