At this moment it is difficult to say how many citizens are arrested or imprisoned for “using violence against the representative of the authority” according to the 316 article of the Criminal Code. Instead we can confirm that the above-noted article is the best one to arrest and imprison the oppositionists. Any policeman can bear false witness as if he has seen somebody who was using violence against his colleagues. The accused person may deny the policeman’s witness but the last word belongs to the policemen and not to the citizens. Former deputy of the RA General Prosecutor Gagik Jhangiryan’s brother’s case was among those cases, perhaps the worst one.
We should remind that Jhangiryan brothers were brought to the General department of the struggle against organized crimes of the RA Police (6th department) on February 23, from Argavand intersection. According to the official information masked policemen stopped G. Jhangiryan’s “Jeep” and became breaking the windows of the car where Jhangiryan brothers were sitting. They beat Vardan Jhnagiryan and shot at him by accident. The latter was loosing his blood when he was brought to the police. He was accused of using violence against the representatives of the authority. We should also remind that Vardan Jhangiryan suffers from spine tuberculosis; he wears a correct and could not use violence against the policemen physically. There were the policemen who were using violence, and Vardan Jhangiryan was simply trying to defend himself and his spinal column. Their attorney Lusine Sahakyan said that they have conclusions of experts according to which Jhangiryan needs in in-patient treatment but he is still arrested.
The description of Vardan Jhangiryan’s case, how he was brought to the 6th department with his injured leg is very awful. Lusine Sahakyan tells that he was brought there at 11:30pm but first aid was administered to him only at 12:50am. “This means that he was losing his blood on the way to the 6th department for about 20 minutes and first aid wasn’t administered at once. Papers, newspapers were put on chairs where he was sitting but it didn’t k help, the blood was shedding and flowing on their chairs. The policemen understood that his wound becomes more and more dangerous and decided to send him to hospital. Then he was brought to the 6th department as if he refused of hospitalization. But he was sent to the hospital again at 9:00am. This is an obvious infringement of the 3rd article of the European Convention for Defense of Human Rights and Basic Freedoms.”
V. Jhangiryan’s case was sent to the court on April 23, the first trial will take place on May 19.