Consul General of Armenia in Los Angeles Krikor Hovanessian visited one of the district prisons on August 8, to meet with Armenian citizens or ethnic Armenians in custody.

Hovanessian familiarized himself with living condition of prisoners and discussed issues related to their rights’ protection and security.

In respect with rumored number of Armenian prisoners in U.S., the Consulate General of Armenia in LA said that the figures are not statistical and are greatly exaggerated.

According to the data, he gained from relevant bodies, in the first half of 2011, 151 Armenian citizens have been arrested, with a very small percentage of them sentenced.

Besides, the number of Armenian citizens in LA prisons does not exceed 1000, he said.

However, increase in Armenian citizens’ deportation cases due to violation of visa terms has been recorded lately. In 2011, U.S. state bodies addressed the LA Consulate General with the issue of deportation of 50 Armenian citizens.