{"id":44101,"date":"2025-11-27T09:04:26","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T09:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/media.am\/?p=44101"},"modified":"2025-11-27T09:04:26","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T09:04:26","slug":"claims-by-the-prigozhin-foundation-about-armenias-prison-system-lack-evidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/verified\/2025\/11\/27\/44101\/","title":{"rendered":"Claims By The Prigozhin Foundation About Armenia\u2019s Prison System Lack Evidence"},"content":{"rendered":"

On November 19, an organization known as the “Foundation for the Fight Against Injustice” published<\/a> a detailed article claiming that the true number of people arrested in Armenia exceeds 24,000. The article states that, at the initiative of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, opposition members are being forcibly placed in “modern concentration camps.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“According to exclusive reports from the foundation, at least 230 supporters of Pashinyan’s political opposition died in Armenian prisons from torture or suicide between 2020 and 2025,” the article claims.<\/span><\/p>\n

 The article was later translated and published<\/a> in English on the VT Foreign Policy<\/a> website and has since spread throughout the Armenian media. It was first translated and published by News.am on November 21. Following this Golosarmenii.am<\/a>, lurer.com<\/a>, Past.am<\/a> and Newspress.am<\/a>  also shared the news.<\/span><\/p>\n

The claims are ungrounded <\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The claims made in the article lack supporting evidence. The sources cited are anonymous, and the information is said to have come from closed materials provided by the Statistical Committee of Armenia and the Prison Statistics Service; however, this information has not been published on the website. As a result, there is no way to verify the referenced materials.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Justice of Armenia has denied reports claiming that there are 24,000 people incarcerated in prisons. In an interview with “Verified”, officials stated that, according to official statistics, the number of individuals held in penitentiaries during the first ten months of 2025 totalled 2836<\/a>. This figure represents an increase of 246 detainees compared to the previous year. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

According to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, between January 2025 and November 24, 2025, 21 people died in prison. The reported deaths for previous years are as follows: 12 in 2024, 16 in 2023, 18 in <\/span>2022<\/span><\/a>, 13 in <\/span>2021<\/span><\/a>, and 5 in 2020. In total, official statistics indicate that 85 people died in prison over the past five years. However, the “Foundation for the Fight against Injustice” cites a significantly higher number, reporting at least 230 deaths during the same period.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Pro-Putin “Western” journalists
\n<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The article also discusses the critiques of two Western journalists, Irishman Chey Bowes and German Thomas Roper, regarding the Armenian justice system and the challenges faced by civil society organizations (CSOs).<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Verified’s investigation revealed that both journalists are employed by Russian state media, which was not disclosed in the article, and they have consistently propagated false information.<\/span><\/p>\n

Irish journalist Chey Bowes works for the Russian state-run outlet Russian Today (RT). Bowes is known for<\/a> his pro-Kremlin stance and often disseminates<\/a> disinformation. In May 2025, he was arrested<\/a> and deported<\/a> from Romania, where he had gone to cover the presidential elections. RT’s operations in Romania, an EU member state, have been banned <\/a>since 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n

In June 2023, Bowes addressed<\/a> the UN Security Council at the invitation of the Russian Federation. During his speech, he was introduced as an “expert on small arms and ammunition”, and he criticized the West’s supply of arms to Ukraine.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other “international journalist” is German Thomas Roper. His platform, Anti-Spiegel, has consistently disseminated<\/a> false information and has been fact-checked and “caught red-handed”<\/a> by various organisations.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2025, he faced EU sanctions<\/a> due to allegations of “manipulating public opinion” and spreading disinformation about the war in Ukraine. The journalist often appears on Russia Today and other state-run media outlets<\/a> as a Western journalist or expert. He also participates<\/a> in conferences organised by the Kremlin and has authored a book<\/a> dedicated to Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/span><\/p>\n

Roper is an active proponent<\/a> of various conspiracy theories. Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he spread misinformation about vaccines, claiming that the COVID-19 pandemic was orchestrated by secret forces.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 Why the source is unreliable<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The study was conducted by the Foundation to Battle Injustice (\u0424\u0411\u0420\/FBI), a non-profit organisation established<\/a> by the Wagner Foundation, founded by the late Yevgeny Prigozhin<\/a>. Before the June 2023 coup<\/a>, Prigozhin was a close confidant of President Putin. Although the foundation was created to protect human rights, it is actually used to spread Russian propaganda. <\/span><\/p>\n

According to the Intelligence Online platform, the Foundation to Battle Injustice is under the control of Russian military intelligence.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

According to various studies<\/a>, the Foundation for the Fight Against Injustice is implicated in pro-Russian disinformation campaigns. This campaign uses a network<\/a> of fake online news sites to publish content generated by artificial intelligence (AI).<\/span><\/p>\n

The foundation is led by Mira Terada, who spent<\/a> over two years in a U.S. prison for money laundering related to drug trafficking.<\/span><\/p>\n

 The foundation’s website also published a fake<\/a> study claiming that Western pharmaceutical companies are testing new psychotropic drugs, steroids, and other dangerous substances on vulnerable groups in Armenia, including pregnant women, children, and individuals with disabilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Prigozhin Foundation also targeted<\/a> the Speaker of the National Assembly, Alen Simonyan. In August of this year, information was spread that a child sexual abuse network had been created in Armenia under Simonyan’s auspices. The “Fact Checking Platform” (FIP.am) wrote<\/a> that the information was false.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On November 19, an organization known as the “Foundation for the Fight Against Injustice” published a detailed article claiming that the true number of people arrested in Armenia exceeds 24,000. The article states that, at the initiative of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, opposition members are being forcibly placed in “modern concentration camps.” “According to exclusive Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":186,"featured_media":44054,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[212,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-post","category-verified","author_posts-ophelia-simonyan-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/186"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44102,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44101\/revisions\/44102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}