Hayk Alumyan and penitentiary service on health issues of Vahan Shirkhanyan

Health condition of former Armenian Defense Minsiter Vahan Shirkhanyan, who is currently in “Yerevan-Kentron” penitentiary, is getting worse. His attorney Hayk Alumyan told 168.am about this.

Vahan Shirkhanyan was detained on December 19, 2015: he has been detained with the charges in participation in criminal cooperation headed by by Artur Vardanyan, acting in its favor and having a particular role in it.

According to the lawyer, prior to being arrested Vahan Shirkhanyan had health problems, which currently aren’t his main issues.

As it’s known at the initial stage attorneys representing interests of V.Shirkhanyan were touching upon his health problems (in particular, attorney Tigran Ter-Yesayan told armlur.am about health problems of Shirkhanyan, which was confirmed by his son as well).

Meanwhile, during the press conferences V.Shirkhnyan’s attorney Hayk Alumyan stated that health condition of Vahan Shirkhanyan is getting worse, he was arrested in good health condition and he’s disabled now.

“At the moment maybe there is nobody in the world to be in perfect health condition. By this I mean: rather good condition for his age, there were no issues threatening to his life or preventing him from moving freely—sitting, speaking, reading. Any person at that age has some health problems. He was physically in good condition, he was having a long walk in the park with his grandchild. During the press conferences you also saw his condition. He was arrested in that condition. Four months later he got lung infarction, and I painfully record, that his condition is even worse now,” Hayk Alumyan said.

Penitentiary service under the Republic of Armenia Ministry of Justice issued a clarification, that on November 18 medical counseling has been launched to observe Vahan Shirkhanyan’s health condition. The Ministry of Health published names of the doctors participating in it, which included main specialists of the Republic. Later Hayk Khanumyan stated that positions of doctors doesn’t increase faith towards their opinion, but urges considering that they tend to protect the state’s position and granting positions and titles to them.

Reflecting to our information that one of the participants was Vahan Shirkhanyan’s doctor, Hayk Alumyan said that he was the one operating him. According to him the steel filter installed after the operation has diverted and plunged into the vessel and they observe a serious issue there.

Reflecting to the statement that two more observations were planned, Hayk Alumyan said,

“The four main specialists, participating in the counseling, said there is no need transporting him to the hospital, and stated that some observations are necessary to implement. Currently he has undergone those additional observations as well, but nobody asks if they were necessary, why don’t they study those additional observations and don’t attempt to clarify what they said on the basis of it?”

In reply to the quest of 168.am, Penitentiary service under the Republic of Armenia Ministry of Justice replied that since the day of his arrest Vahan Shirkhanyan has undergone the following observations within free medical assistance:

February 15, 2016—duplex scanning of vessels of lower limbs at “Diagnostika” medical center

August 3, 2016—head MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)

August 4, 2016—doppler  spectroscopy of head vessels at “Diagnostika” medical center

November 22, 2016—CT (Computed Tomography), b) Holter monitoring, c) ECHO-ECG—Doppler (cardiovascular research) at “Astghik” medical center

November 30, 2016: ENMG at “Diagnostika” Medical center

By Armine Vardanyan