Director of Vardenis Home-Internat Forced One Patient to Work in His Pigsty, Tortured Patients

The Main Department of Criminal Police, the Gegharkunik Regional Department, and the Vardenis Division have carried out extensive operational-search measures resulting in information that the director of the Vardenis Home-Internat has committed a number of illegal acts, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reports.

In particular, one of the patients has been performing cleaning tasks in the director's pigsty, and at the director's instruction, patients are doing economic work instead of the home-internat staff. Additionally, according to reports, the director is torturing the patients and instructing that they do not receive their allocated cigarette rations and the food specified in the daily menu.

According to police information, the director has demanded and received various sums of money through an intermediary in order to increase the salaries of employees. Moreover, during his tenure, he has shown negligence towards work and has not dismissed unqualified employees.

As a result of the operational-search measures and procedural actions undertaken by law enforcement, on February 16, one patient was found in his hospital room in one of the sections of the home-internat, tied with a metal chain to a heating boiler. Subsequently, the director of the neuropsychiatric home-internat and a group of employees were arrested and presented to the prosecuting authority. The circumstances are under investigation.

Note: The suspect in the alleged crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty in accordance with the law as defined by the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia, based on a court's legally upheld judgment.