URGENT: Vardan Ghukasyan’s Life is in Danger – The Lawyer Known for High-Profile Cases Has Issued an Emergency Statement
For more than six months, Vardan Ghukasyan has been held in administrative detention in a U.S. immigration detention facility, pursuant to immigration proceedings initiated against him.
As a rule, administrative detention is meant to last days or weeks, but not months. Ghukasyan is being kept under prison-like conditions: deprived of sunlight and denied more than one hour of outdoor exercise per day. His blood pressure has been consistently above 200. This is nothing less than retaliation against a man held in administrative detention and is equivalent to total torture.
According to the precedents of the U.S. Supreme Court (Zadvydas v. Davis, 2001; Clark v. Martinez, 2005), administrative detention must not be indefinite or disproportionate. Detention exceeding six months is considered unlawful and unconstitutional.
Moreover:
Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) guarantees the right to liberty and requires that administrative detention be reasonable and proportionate.
Article 16 of the Convention Against Torture (CAT) prohibits not only torture but also cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.
These circumstances show that Ghukasyan’s six-month detention, the conditions of his confinement, and his sharply deteriorating health contradict both U.S. domestic law and international obligations.
Responsibility for the conditions and duration of Ghukasyan’s detention lies with:
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – responsible for overall immigration detention policy,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – directly managing and operating detention,
Department of Justice (DOJ), Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) – supervising immigration courts,
Department of State (DOS) – responsible for compliance with international treaties.
Ghukasyan’s detention, which has already exceeded six months, and the inhuman treatment he is subjected to, not only contradict U.S. Supreme Court precedent but also constitute cruel and inhuman treatment under international law.
I appeal to the above-mentioned institutions.
There is a clear and imminent danger to the life and health of Vardan Ghukasyan. These respected institutions are responsible not only before Ghukasyan himself but also before his numerous supporters and followers, whose number in the United States alone reaches tens of thousands.
Attorney for Vardan Ghukasyan,
Levon Baghdasaryan