The press following developments in Ukraine today has many occasions to draw parallels between Nazi Germany and Ukrainian law enforcement authorities. The public is shaken from stories of opposition members being kidnapped and tortured in -20°C weather and then left in the depths of the forest. If it wasn't for those stories and videos (which are disseminated also by the police), we might've considered the atrocities described in imprisoned Merab Aloyan-Suslov's letters to be exaggerated.

In letters to the president of Armenia and other high-ranking officials, the Armenian national who's already served 3 years behind bars in Kiev's Lukyanivska Prison describes the legal violations, torture, and cruel and inhuman treatment he and his relatives have experienced. 

"There's no natural light in the cell: the window is shut with [planks of] wood that doesn't allow air to come in — there's no table, no chair. The cell is controlled by video cameras around the clock; all the personal spaces are controlled, including the toilet. They force me to humiliate myself; they torture and threaten to kill [me] in prison," wrote Aloyan-Suslov. 

In repeated letters to the Ukrainian and Armenian authorities, Merab Aloyan-Suslov, and his attorneys and relatives have said that Merab's life is seriously threatened. They said that there was an attempt to poison Aloyan-Suslov, through food sent to him through an unknown person and only by chance did he manage to stay alive. Prison employees and management continuously threaten him and incite other prisoners to do the same. Accompanying him to the examination room, toilet, and courtroom are special military forces, their faces covered in masks, who stand out with their particular brutality and predisposition for uncalled-for physical force. 

As a rule, they put handcuffs on a prisoner when he leaves his cell, and keeping the prisoner's hands high behind his back, they force them to move with their face and body bent to the ground, which causes unspeakable pain, as well as degrading the prisoner's dignity. He is made to sit in a cage in court with handcuffs on and once he was taken with a sack over his head. After the sack was removed, Aloyan-Suslov saw how the victim's relatives were laughing and taking photos of him with their cell phones. Another time, a prison employee tore the symbol of his religious belief around his neck and threw it in the toilet. 

Aloyan-Suslov's attorney Marina Zaytseva in an October 4, 2013 letter to the Ombudsman of the Republic of Armenia wrote that her client spent two weeks in a "disciplinary cell" for fictitious reasons, followed by solitary confinement for 3 months, cutting off all ties with the outside world. "[Aloyan-]Suslov began a hunger strike and is asking for an attorney. Every day for him now is torment and might be the last. What's happening with him now, no one knows… They have completely isolated him from the outside world; they've taken him captive," she wrote in the letter.

The businessman who is well-known in Russia and the Ukraine attributes the inhumane, cruel treatment he's endured to his entrepreneurial activity. "Ukraine's high-ranking officials persistently ask that my son, Roman Suslov, renounce the property he has in the Ukraine, which is valued at millions of dollars and for which they fabricated this murder charge," he says in his appeals. Note, Aloyan-Suslov's son is not allowed to enter the Ukraine. 

In an October 1, 2013 petition sent to RA President Serzh Sargsyan, M. Suslov described the assaults against his relatives. “In the presence of the police, they assaulted my relatives in the court building. Not only didn’t the police intervene, but they dragged my father to the toilet to wash away the traces of blood. They broke eleven teeth of the 76 year-old father, broke his nose, and took him to hospital with a concussion. A few days later they beat my 75 year-old mother, resulting in a broken foot. Since my mother has diabetes, the foot never healed and had to be amputated. It’s been a year and my relatives haven’t been able to initiate a criminal case about these assaults. The police and prosecutor’s office are displaying total indifference.  Terrified, they returned to Armenia, leaving me on my own here.”

With their petitions sent to top Armenian officials and the country’s president, Merab Aloyan-Suslov, his parents, son, lawyers, and  Aziz Tamoyan (President of the National Union of Yezidis in Armenia), requested that the government of Armenia not remain indifferent towards its citizen. “Our son, Merab Aloyan, is a citizen of the Republic of Armenia. He is a prominent entrepreneur in the CIS. He is well-known in business circles in Armenia, as he’s been involved in a number of large state projects; for example, the Iran-Armenia gas importation project,” they pointed out. To save M. Suslov from being tortured and to secure his safety, they urged the Armenian consul in Ukraine to visit him in prison.

 Responding to scores of written petitions and requests, a staffer at the consulate visited M. Suslov. Afterwards, Vladimir Karmirshalyan, who heads the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Consular Department, responded to Aziz Tamoyan. “…an embassy staff member visited the imprisoned  Merab Suslov. During the visit, Suslov expressed his disagreement with the verdict of the Ukraine court, and also noted that conditions in the examination isolation ward and the treatment of its workers towards him had improved in the last months.”

 In essence, not deriving anything from that visit, M. Suslov again writes to the President of Armenia: “Such a diplomatic formulation not only says nothing about my complaints that I made known to the embassy staffer, but also totally distorts the aim of that meeting which took place based on my request. It turns out that I only asked the staffer at the RA Embassy to visit me so that I could tell them just how my conditions in the examination isolation ward and the treatment of its workers towards me had ‘improved’. If the embassy staffer truly reported about the aforementioned, this means that he deliberately distorted reality and in this manner, as a functionary, engaged in fraud.” In the letter, Suslov also demanded a second visit from a consular division staffer to whom he hands over information about his physical safety and detention conditions.

M. Suslov’s parents ask the President of Armenia to again support them and to instruct the appropriate Armenian agencies to take steps in order to ascertain where their son was being held and to guarantee his  safety. They revealed that other prisoners, at the instigation of prison authorities, had attempted to kill their son on several occasions. “Since our son, battling for his rights, has become a big problem for them, they want to get rid of him and have decided to transfer him to another prison where it will be impossible  to contact him. We want staffers at the RA Embassy in Ukraine to visit him in prison. If Ukraine authorities see that the government of Armenia is taking an interest in the case, they will not be able to threaten his life. We implore you to save his life.”

There was never a second visit from the consulate. The Ukraine press periodically reported that M. Suslov continued to be subjected to torture and inhumane treatment, and that the Armenian Consulate was aware of all this but showed no interest in the plight of its citizen.

 Merab’s parents continue to search for ways to save their son and to have him deported to Armenia so that, if he is found guilty in Ukraine, at least he can serve out his sentence in Armenia. They have asked the Armenian ministers of foreign affairs and justice to take steps to have their son deported after sentencing. On July 10, 2013, the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Otar Aloyan [Merab’s father] that regarding the transfer to Armenia of the Merab Suslov, sentenced in Ukraine, any such petitions must be received from the justice ministry of the plaintiff government. Responses must be delivered in the same manner. The ministry also suggested that Merab’s parents contact the appropriate body; i.e., the RA Ministry of Justice.

P.S. The torments described in Merab Aloyan-Suslov’s letters remind me of one account made by lawyers from Armenia who visited prisons in Germany. A German colleague, upon noting the amazement of the Armenian lawyers regarding the comfortable prison conditions, responded: “We have deprived them of their liberty, but not of their dignity.” In the meantime, they are today depriving people of their liberty and dignity in Ukraine.