Beniamin Matevosyan: who will be the next to die in the dungeons of Pashinyan’s courts?

(Arrest in today’s Armenia is a method of punishment and torture)

The death of Arsen Gevorgyan at the Nubarashen penitentiary institution is neither an accident nor just another dry line in incident reports. It is the terrible and logical outcome of how the judicial and penitentiary system of today’s Armenia works. Gevorgyan, who was born in 1980 and headed the Strong Armenia party’s list in the elections to the Stepanavan Council of Elders, died in the early hours of November 10 while in the full custody of the state. He was arrested on October 21, just four days before the vote, by a decision of the Anti-Corruption Court. The arrest was part of mass detentions that affected 24 people, including four candidates.

The opposition figure was charged with giving bribes after a large-scale smear campaign had been launched against him. As expected, the pro-government candidate won the October 25 election, while the opposition leader remained behind bars. There his condition sharply deteriorated, and the ambulance called at 7: 55 a.m. could only confirm cardiac arrest.

As the Strong Armenia party bluntly stated, direct and unequivocal responsibility for the death of yet another opposition figure in prison lies with the person on whose personal orders hundreds of inconvenient citizens are groundlessly discredited, persecuted and arrested. Yet the authorities’ reaction is striking in its political cynicism and complete lack of human empathy. At a briefing, Srbuhi Galyan, minister of justice, said, as usual, that such things supposedly happen all over the world, and matter-of-factly read out statistics: more than 20 deaths in prisons last year and four this year. She was echoed by Sisak Gabrielyan, an MP from the ruling party, who “reassured” the public that several people die of heart attacks every day.

Instead of launching an urgent investigation and acknowledging the crisis, officials are openly justifying the death of a political opponent, claiming that he had not complained about his health and that there is no political persecution in the country.

We have had to point out more than once that detention in Armenia has become not just a tool of political repression but a genuine evil. As Aram Vardevanyan, deputy speaker of the National Assembly, rightly noted, Arsen Gevorgyan was protected by the presumption of innocence and the right to liberty, both of which were grossly violated by the competent officials. He was solely in the state’s custody, and in these circumstances we are faced with a horrific and irrefutable fact. “Understand, finally, that detention is not a punishment. It is simply a measure of last resort, yet you send many people into unjustified detention just because you cannot imagine Armenia without political prisoners and overcrowded detention centers. You cannot guarantee even minimal medical care for detainees, yet you send them to detention centers regardless. You are trampling on the presumption of innocence at the cost of people’s lives, demonstrating an act of political hatred and a fetishization of deprivation of liberty,” Vardevanyan said.

The most tragic aspect of this practice is that, by putting citizens behind bars before a court verdict, the state turns detention facilities into dungeons and arrest itself into a method of legalized torture. In this system, the lack of proper medical care becomes a silent weapon against those the authorities dislike. The politician’s death vividly illustrates the true goal of the current government: eliminating competitors by any means, even at the cost of human lives. Today, Armenian society must ask itself a harsh and uncomfortable question: who will be the next victim of the endless conveyor belt of Pashinyan’s courts? The country’s legal system has collapsed to the point where arrest is equal to a death sentence without trial or investigation, and this demands immediate recognition. If this regime continues to destroy the presumption of innocence, the list of victims of its repressive machine will only grow. The opposition must grasp the full scale of this tragedy, first and foremost for its own sake. If you fail to understand it, fail to draw conclusions, and let this incident and this issue be forgotten, you will be the next ones in the cell where Arsen Gevorgyan was held.

Think about it…