Imprisoned soldier Razmik Sargsyan’s hunger strike has reached 90 days, as the 19-year old continues to protest his arrest, which he says was the result of a confession he gave after being tortured by investigators.

Sargsyan, Araik Zalyan and Musa Serobyan have been in prison since early last year, charged with the deaths of two other soldiers while stationed in Karabakh. Based on testimony given by Sargsyan, the three were sentenced to 15 years in prison. (See Hungry for Justice for related ArmeniaNow articles.) The soldiers have appealed the verdict of the Court of First Instance.

On August 12, Sargsyan began a hunger strike, vowing that he would starve to death rather than submit to the sentence he says is unjust.

Attorneys and supporters called a press conference on Wednesday in which they said Sargsyan’s life is under threat because he refuses to break the strike.

According to attorneys, the teenager suffers fainting, choking, and has chronic kidney problems which were the result of being beaten during several days of interrogation leading to his confession.

At an appeals court hearing last Friday, Sargsyan was brought to the hearing by officers who held him under his arms. He collapsed onto a table and stayed spread across it during the duration of the hearing.

It was the first time Sargsyan has appeared in court since August 18, when hearings were suspended after a prison doctor stated that the soldier’s health was too bad to allow his participation in his trial.

At last Friday’s hearing judge Mher Arghamanyan read another certificate certifying that Sargsyan was too weak to carry on with the court process.

“The court is deeply concerned with your health condition,” said the judge. “But you shouldn’t think you will be able to influence the final decision of the court in that way.”

Sargsyan’s attorneys petitioned the court to provide their “half dead” client medical care and to withdraw the representative of the Military Prosecutor’s Office who, they say, continues to use “psychological tortures” in respect to their defendant in the court hall.

The court accepted the recommendation of the Military Prosecutor’s office representative Anahit Yeghiazaryan and moved that Sargsyan be given an examination to determine his ability to proceed with his trial.

“Assigning a court medical examination in a condition like this also means torturing him,” says Sargsyan lawyer Zaruhi Postanjyan. “He needs medical help today and should immediately be transported to a well-equipped hospital for treatment. What examination are they talking about?”

Sargsyan’s lawyers say the Military Prosecutor’s Office wants to control who does the examination, as a means to protect the Prosecutor’s Office from evidence that part of Sargsyan’s health condition is a result of torture.

The lawyers have tried to persuade their client to end the hunger strike.

“I wonder where his will comes from,” says lawyer Stepan Voskanyan. “He has chosen this way to prove he is right, for he does not believe in justice any more.”

Wednesday’s conference was attended by non-governmental organizations (Helsinki Association, Helsinki Civil Assembly Office in Vanadzor and Committee for Soldier’s Protection), parents of soldiers killed in the army and representatives of mass media.

Rights activist Artur Sakunts stated that in case anything happens to Sargsyan all the further responsibility will fall on the Military Prosecutor’s Office.

The lawyers and the right activists mentioned once again that the three soldiers have become scapegoats to protect the commander of their military unit Ivan Grigoryan, who is backed up by higher echelons of power.

President of the NGO Committee for Soldier’s Protection Gohar Armenakyan (her son was killed in one of the military units in Karabagh in 2002) spoke about the “endless murders and connivance of the officers in peacetime”.

“We have not lost our senses to the extent of considering any soldier presented to us a murderer,” she concluded.

Julia Sargsyan, the mother of Razmik Sargsyan, appears hopeless.

“What they exactly want is that my child dies, so that the case will be closed without revealing the true criminal. Who cares about how my child is treated? So many soldiers are killed in the army, who cares? They will kill Razmik this way,” says the mother.

By Zhanna Alexanyan, ArmeniaNow reporter