Vardges Gaspari starts hunger strike: He is systematically beaten in prison
Civil activist Vardges Gaspari has started hunger strike refusing food and water, his lawyer Tigran Yegoryan told A1+. The lawyer says Gaspari has not been taken to a special cell and is kept in a ward where he is regularly subjected to torture. “He is systematically beaten and treated inhumanly. The prison administration is aware of it,” Tigran Yegoryan said. Today, the lawyer visited Vardges Gaspari at the Nork psychiatric hospital. The activist was transferred there for forensic examination. However, the examination was postponed, and he was again taken back to the Nubarashen prison. Vardges Gaspari, 59, is charged with insulting police officers Diana Vardanyan and Sona Melikyan in court in April 2014. On February 19, 2016, Gaspari was taken into custody without prior notice. He had not attended court hearings appointed in the case and police officers had to take him to the courtroom by force. Nor was he present at the court hearing where the decision to take him into custody was made.
