Mental health campaigners are seeking to prevent the deportation of a mentally-ill 34-year-old Armenian asylum seeker because they fear he will not receive proper treatment or may be killed if he returns to Armenia.
John McCarthy of Cork Advocacy Network has urged Minister for Justice Michael McDowell to rescind his decision of January 25th to deport Arsen Negocsian.
Mr Negocsian, who has been living in Cork for five years, has been held at Cloverhill Prison under a deportation order since April 19th but lawyers have obtained an interim injunction preventing his deportation.
"Arsen is under medical care and has been under medical care and medication for the past three years. He suffers from depression and his present circumstances are hardly ideal for this condition," said Mr McCarthy.
"That said, bad and all as they are, they are better than what he can expect back in his home country and we are asking the Minister for Justice to delay Arsen's return on humanitarian grounds for 12 months so that he can receive proper treatment for his illness."
Mr Negocsian, a concert flautist, fled Armenia in 2000 after the assassination of a leading politician. He had met journalist Nairi Hunanyan, who shot dead former prime minister Vazgen Sargsyan and six government officials in 1999, at a party some six months before the assassination when they spoke about the prime minister.
Mr Negocsian believes that meeting has endangered his life.