There’s been a shake-up at Armenia’s prisons…well sort of. After the escape last week of two convicts from the Nubarashen Penitentiary, Warden Arsen Afrikyan handed in his resignation. His superior, Chief of the Criminal Correctional Service Ashot Giziryan, hasn’t made a similar face saving move and nor is the Minister of Justice preparing to step down. This is what I was told by Lana Mshecyan, Minister Gevorg Danielyan’s Press Secretary.

During the past eight months, three detainees have escaped from Armenian prisons. On April 1, 2009, Arshak Aghababyan, serving twelve years for the attempted murder of political analyst Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan, escaped from the Yerevan-Kentron Penitentiary. The scandal was neatly wrapped-up by charging Armen Muradyan, the facility’s Deputy Director, with “abuse of official powers”.

Who’s in charge? Damaging photo adds to speculation

The second prison break occurred just days ago, on November 27, and lead to the resignation of Arsen Afrikyan, Director of the Nubarashen Penitentiary. Then, to add insult to injury, there was the embarrassing photo that appeared in the media the other day showing Derenik Bejanyan and Edik Grigoryan, serving life sentences for the attack on the Armenian Parliament in 1999, sitting in their prison cell having coffee and socializing with Artyom Khachatryan, editor of “Azatamtutyun” (Free Thought – a pro-government daily). Also at the table was Arsen Artsruni a former member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation convicted of being a member of the “Dro” death squad that had allegedly operated in the early 1990s. The photo caused a mild uproar in opposition and pro-government circles alike.

Armenian penal laws prohibit group meetings in jail cells of convicts sentenced to life imprisonment. So how did these convicts wind up in the same cell? The Ministry of Justice, which monitors Armenia’s prison, said later in the day that Minister Danielyan ordered officials to look into the incident and determine whether the Nubarashen administration violated rules regulating visits to prison inmates. This official review has yet to offer any findings into the matter. Instead, we already know those responsible for the prisoner escape. The Special Investigative Branch has filed charges of “dereliction of duty” against three prison employees – Vanik Harutyunyan, Ara Atabekyan and Aghasi Smbatyan.

The charges state that due to their lack of adequate oversight, two convicts serving life sentences, Mher Yenokyan and Soghomon Kocharyan, made their escape after lowering a rope
from the roof after they and other prisoners were taken to a sixth-floor courtyard for a recreational walk.

Same two convicts broke out of Goris Prison 5 years ago

The same pair of convicts also escaped from the Goris Correctional Facility almost exactly five years ago, on December 9, 2004. After a month on the run, the two were caught and transferred to Nubarashen. Prison investigators later found a variety of tools in their Goris cell and make-shift dummies had been fashioned and placed in their cell cots.

In the trial that followed, Yenokyan and Kocharyan testified that they had come across a small piece of metal during their recreational walks and that for ten days straight they chiseled a hole in their 1.5 meter thick cell wall. They also claimed that despite being caught they regarded their flight from prison as a success since they had always professed their innocence. From their point of view, their daring prison break had the intended result of refocusing public attention on their plight, leading to a review of the entire case.

In June, 2005, the courts tacked on another seven years to the life sentences the two were already serving. This meant that if their cases were ever reviewed, the additional punishment for the prison escape would be taken into account. “By escaping from prison I have tried to show that even convicts serving a life sentence are not violent individuals and that they can find their place in regular society. During my thirty-six days of freedom I never once injured anyone. Neither did I harm the judge that sentenced me to life or the investigators that beat me and used threats to extract a convenient confession,” stated Soghomon Kocharyan.

Kocharyan and Yenokyan: Death sentence commuted to life imprisonment

Born in 1966, Soghomon Kocharyan participated in the Artsakh War. In 1995, he was found guilty of the murder of an Iranian citizen during a robbery attempt on the Yerevan-Kapan highway and sentenced to be executed. Later on, President Robert Kocharyan commuted his death sentence and that of forty-two other convicts to life imprisonment under a general amnesty.

The other convict, Mher Yenokyan, had also been sentenced to death for the 1996 murder of a fellow student at the Yerevan State Medical University Yenokyan was a twenty year-old 3rd year medical student at the time. His sentence was also commuted to life imprisonment.

Mher Yenokyan comes from a family of physicians and never had a criminal record beforehand. According to the court’s ruling, Mher had taken his classmate Iosef, the son of his lecturer Mikhail Aghajanov, to the 9th floor apartment of his friend Aram. Mher proceeded to deliver several blows to Iosef’s head with a wrench. Holding Iosef’s legs, he directed Aram to stab the victim’s neck with a knife. The two then stuffed the body in a large bag and attempted to remove it from the house but then had second thoughts about what they had down. They confessed their dastardly deed to their parents and then turned themselves in to the police.

However the court found that Mher had all along planned to kidnap and kill the son of the well-to-do university instructor and to later demand $20,000 for the return of the body. This version of the story was solely based on the testimony of Mher’s partner in crime, Aram Harutyunyan, who was sentenced to 15 years. Years ago, the media brought to light several outstanding issues related to the case.

In particular, why did this “premeditated” killing take place at the home of Aram Harutyunyan when his younger sister was at the apartment? The sister was never questioned by police.

Mher Yenokyan – “I’ve always proclaimed my innocence”

Why did they select the son of a college instructor as their victim since he was not particularly wealthy? If the two were really after ransom money, why didn’t they remove the large gold cross and chain from the victim’s body or take the cash in his trouser pockets? What happened to the bag they supposedly used to move the corpse? Why did the boys have a change of heart at the last minute that prompted them to call their parents and not the dead boy’s father for the ransom? Finally, and more importantly, why did the court find the testimony of Aram plausible and not that of Mher?

Mher had stated during the trial that an argument had broken out between Aram and Iosef. The latter grabbed a kitchen knife and tried to stab Aram. Mher, in an attempt to intervene, picked up a wrench and hit Iosef on his back. A tussle ensued during which time Aram struck Iosef, first with the wrench and then with the knife. Mher tried to administer mouth-to mouth resuscitation to Iosef but the boy died from his wounds. Mher testified that while he didn’t kill his friend Iosef, he was guilty all the same because he wasn’t able to prevent his death. In the ensuing year’s, Mher Yenokyan’s family have repeatedly petitioned various courts to review the case and conduct a second investigation. Their efforts have proven futile.

In 2004, after the prison break from Goris, Mher Yenokyan declared, “The court never took into account the fact that I voluntarily turned myself over to the police after the murder with the perpetrator (Aram Harutyunyan) of the crime. Thus, I harbored no illusions that if I turned myself in after breaking out of prison the courts would review my case and issue a just ruling.”

P.S. The RoA Police Department’s Press Division has reported that the two escaped convicts Yenokyan and Kocharyan remain at large and that a manhunt is being conducted.