Thomas Hammarberg is concerned about health of ex-MP Mikaelyan imprisoned in Armenia

High Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe Thomas Hammarberg, who is now in Yerevan, imprisoned opposition leaders in detention Nikol Pashinyan, Arutyun Urutyan and Sasun Mikaelyan.

The Commissioner spoke to Mr Pashinyan, editor-in-chief of the opposition newspaper "Armenian Time" in the criminal penitentiary institution (CPI) "Artik", located in the north of Armenia, for about two and a half hours; no details of their talk are known.

At that very CPI Mr Hammarberg met another opposition activist - Arutyun Urutyan; their meeting lasted for 1.5 hours. According to the press service of the Ministry of Justice, Thomas Hammarberg asked Urutyan about his custody conditions.

On January 19, at the prison hospital, Mr Hammarberg met Sasun Mikaelyan, sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment. After that meeting the High Commissioner of the Council of Europe for Human Rights told journalists that he was concerned about the health of the inmate and said about possible release of Mikaelyan because of grave health condition.

High Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg, who is making his three-day visit to Armenia, had meetings with activists of human rights organizations, non-parliamentary and parliamentary oppositionists, that is, members of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) and the "Heritage" Party, relatives of the victims of the events on March 1, Defence Minister Seiran Oganyan, representatives of the ruling coalition and employees of the TV Channels "GALA and "A1+", deprived of their broadcasting rights.

On the last day of his visit, January 21, Thomas Hammarberg will meet Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan.