Even though a Yerevan hospital advised the Noubarashen Penitentiary housing lifer Soghomon Kocharyan, now into his 21st year behind bars, to transfer him to the Convicts’ Hospital for vital treatment as of August 5, the facility failed to do so for two additional weeks.   

This fact is evidenced by Notice 12119 issued by the Erebouni Medical Center on August 5. Kocharyan was diagnosed with Cardiac ischemia - the name for decreased blood flow and oxygen to the heart muscle. It's the term given to heart problems caused by narrowed heart arteries.

Kocharyan’s attorney Grisha Balasanyan, by reviewing Kocharyan’s medical card, revealed that the inmate was returned to Nubarashen after being diagnosed at the hospital and issued a recommendation to be sent to the Convicts’ Hospital.

Balasanyan says that someone must be held accountable given that his client’s medical condition dramatically worsened as a result.

Kocharyan is now being treated at Yerevan’s Grigor Lousavorich Medical Center.