Lawyers claim penitentiary service failed to ensure medical assistance to jailed mayoral candidate, authorities deny allegations
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The Penitentiary Service of Armenia’s Ministry of Justice has denied claims that Arsen Gevorgyan, Strong Armenia party’s candidate for mayor in the Stepanavan local government elections, who died at the Nubarashen penitentiary, was not provided access to medical assistance and that doctors were allowed to enter the penitentiary only after he had already died.
Gevorgyan, who headed the Strong Armenia party’s electoral list in the Stepanavan City Council elections, was arrested on October 21, four days before the elections. On the same day, the Anti-Corruption Court ordered his pretrial detention for two months. A total of 14 people were arrested in connection with the proceedings.
According to the charges brought by the Anti-Corruption Committee, Gevorgyan had given bribes to several dozen voters on the condition that they vote for Strong Armenia. Gevorgyan denied the charges.
He died on the morning of November 10 at the Nubarashen penitentiary.
A group of lawyers issued a statement on Wednesday, claiming that Arsen Gevorgyan’s condition had visibly deteriorated and that he had been examined not by a doctor but by a paramedic from the penitentiary’s medical staff.
“The ambulance was not called at the earliest possible time, nor even after that. Arsen Gevorgyan was not provided medical assistance by a doctor, and access to such assistance was not ensured. Doctors were allowed to enter the penitentiary, in fact, only after Arsen Gevorgyan’s death. The circumstances that have come to light raise suspicions of serious human rights violations and must be subject to a thorough, independent and impartial investigation,” the lawyers’ statement said.
In response to the lawyers’ statement, the Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Justice of Armenia issued a statement, which reads, in part:
“Taking into account the public discussions, as well as in order to rule out unnecessary speculation, below we present information, in chronological order, on the events recorded on the morning of November 10, 2026, by the cameras installed near the cell of Arsen Gevorgyan, an inmate at the Nubarashen penitentiary of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia. At 07:37, an officer approaches the respective cell and speaks with the person inside until 07:38. At 07:40, the officer approaches the cell once again and speaks with the person until 07:41. At 07:42, a nurse approaches the cell. At 07:43, the officer opens the cell, and the nurse enters. At 07:45, the nurse leaves the cell to arrange for an ambulance to be called. At 07:51, the officer opens the cell once again, and the nurse remains inside until 07:58. At 08:10, ambulance personnel approach the penitentiary. At 08:13, ambulance personnel enter the respective cell. At 08:23, the person is brought out of the cell on a stretcher. From 08:27 to 08:33, the person lying on the stretcher in the penitentiary corridor is connected to an electrocardiogram (ECG) machine, during which the ambulance doctor records the person’s biological death.”