49 year-old Kamo Shalounts, an Artsakh War vet who has spent the last twenty years in Armenian prisons after being found guilty for the premeditated murder of two people, has written to Hetq complaining that the institute of conditional release does not exist in Armenia and that he does receive a pension will behind bars.

In 2003, Shalounts’ sentence was changed to life in prison by a presidential decree.

“The law gives us life prisoners the right to conditional release after serving twenty years. But they haven’t released anyone yet,” Shalounts told this reporter.

Shalounts said that the administrative committee of Nubarashen Detention Facility has already denied him the right to file a conditional release application even though he served twenty years as of this May.  

“They argue that I have a violation against me. Supposedly they found a cell phone in my cell five years ago. I don’t remember anything of the kind,” said Shalounts.

The lifer also raises the issue of his disability pension for wounds sustained during the Artsakh War

Shalounts has a 25 year-old daughter with disabilities on the outside that he would desperately like to see and take care off. His wife passed away in 2013.

P.S. Kamo Shalounts requested that I visit him at the Nubarashen Detention Facility and granted permission that I study his case in the court archives.