Citizen Edik Martirosyan, who was forcibly put in a car by the police a month ago and taken to Nubarashen Mental Health Center, is in freedom now.
The management of the psychiatric hospital discharged him today. Edik Martirosyan himself informed us about it. He has lost his job during the month in the mental center, but he was happy to be free.
In a conversation with Forrights.am, Martirosyan said that the management of the psychiatric hospital convened a meeting of the commission in the morning; they decided that his condition was good and discharged him. He was released only after the intervention of the Ombudsman’s office and Journalists for Human Rights NGO.
It should be reminded that Martirosyan was taken to Nubarashen mental health center from Baghramyan Street, where, in his words, “I was standing and ordering shaurma [kind of sandwich].” “They came, stopped, talked and so on; they wanted to provoke me to hit them, but I did nothing, and they brought me here,” he told Forrights.am. Martirosyan was injected with strong drugs at the psychiatric hospital and was demanded to sign some documents, but he did not obey the doctors. During his stay in the psychiatric hospital, Martirosyan was deprived of his telephone. It was given to him for five minutes a day.
The police clarified this extraordinary incident the following way: “The citizen himself called the police. At first, he said that he had been beaten, which was not confirmed, then he said that his dog had been stolen. Police officers arrived at the place mentioned by him and found out that there was no fight. The citizen’s behavior was not adequate. The police called an ambulance, a unit came, assessed the citizen’s condition, and took him to a psychiatric hospital.” The employees of the psychiatric hospital refused to answer Forrights.am’s questions, only mentioning that they brought the citizen in and then applied to court.
Zhanna Aleksanyan, head of the Journalists for Human Rights organization, found out about the incident and appealed to the Ombudsman, saying that Martirosyan was being held in a psychiatric hospital without any grounds.
The Ombudsman’s Office responded to the human rights activist’s call and initiated proceedings on the case of illegally and forcibly transferring citizen Edik Martirosyan to Nubarashen Mental Health Center.
The Ombudsman’s office answered Forrights.am’s inquiry. “It turned out that, due to the inadmissible practice of legislative shortcomings, the rights of the citizen were violated, including the right of personal freedom. Taking into account that actions required by law are necessary to reveal the details of the case, proceedings have been initiated based on the initiative of the Ombudsman.”
After the visit of the Ombudsman’s office staff, Martirosyan’s cell phone was returned and he was provided with a lawyer. “I went to a psychiatric hospital yesterday and found out that my client was kept there senselessly, without any grounds. He is a healthy person, with normal judgment. The fact itself that he was there was bewildering. The staff of the psychiatric hospital did not provide me with any grounds, did not say why they were holding Edik Martirosyan,” said Martirosyan’s lawyer, Public Defender Hrach Torosyan.
What will be the consequences of this incident, will it be investigated, will the police and the staff of the psychiatric hospital be held accountable for arresting or keeping the citizen in prison illegally? It should be. Otherwise, it will mean that each of us can be caught during the day, straight from the street, without any reason, in violation of the law, taken to a psychiatric hospital and kept there for a month.
Syuzan Simonyan