Political arrestees once again?

And they say that one cannot enter the same river twice

Yesterday it turned out that seven activists of the Armenian National Congress Tigran Arakelyan, Sahak Muradyan , Areg Gevorgyan, Sargis Gevorgyan, Artak Karapetyan, Davit Kiramijyan and Vahagn Gevorgyan who were taken to the Kentron police station on August 9 were arrested. The RA police opened a case and the 7 youngsters were charged with two articles of the RA CC, unit 1of paragraph 3 of article 258 (Hooliganism) and paragraph 1 of article 316 (violence against a representative of the government). The police say that the preliminary investigation of the case continues. Let us remind that in the evening of August 9 the ANC youngsters who are members of the “Against the Illegality of the Police” social group, were firstly beaten up and then taken to the Kentron police station after they interfered in the search of a citizen on Teryan street by the SAP (the State Agency of Protection), demanding of the law enforcers on what grounds they were doing that. The language fight that started between the police officers and the youngsters turned into a fight. The police are, certainly, presenting their version of the incident, which, as always, substantially differs from the above-mentioned scene in its main characteristic, the actions of the police. According to the police message, the law-enforcers made a remark to a citizen for disrupting the social order and at that moment a group of youngsters approached, interfered, insulted them, addressed the poor police officers with curses of sexual nature, impeded their work, and “all the attempts to call the youngsters to order were unsuccessful; they continued provocations and hooligan actions.” Then an attempt was made with the assistance of the auxiliary forces of the police “to restore the social order, but the youngsters provoked a scuffle and resisted”, but “eventually they managed to subdue the disruptors of the social order and took them to the police station”. During that one of them hit a police officer who was taken to the hospital with facial injuries. The people who were taken into custody, according to the police, “continued provocations and hooligan actions in the station”. The police deny the fact of using force against the youngsters, although yesterday websites were filled with videos testifying to the obvious and lots of body injuries of the already arrested youngsters and in the case of Davit Kiramijyan, also a cut on the forehead (see https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=191562307573622&comments).
All 7 arrested were given a forensic referral; the boys will be examined today. And yesterday accompanied by the red berets, Tigran Arakelyan was taken to Erebuni Medical Center in the ambulance car. Tigran’s and Artak Karapetyan’s lawyer Varduhi Elbakyan told about that during a conversation with “Aravot”. T. Arakelyan was taken to the hospital after his statement that he was beaten up in the Kentron police station. According to the lawyer, the medical examination revealed bruises on his ribs and face. Artak Kirakosyan’s injuries were relatively slighter. Certainly, the illegal actions of the police were not limited with beating the youngsters up before taking them into custody, also in the Kentron police station and impeding the medical assistance to the youngsters by the police. The lawyers who arrived 20 minutes after the young people were taken into custody were allowed to enter the station only after 40 minutes; however the lawyers were not involved into the case with an explicit violation of the law. Moreover, physical force was used against the lawyers in the police station, they were unlawfully denied of the freedom of movement for 1 hour, and the phone of one of the lawyers was taken. An unlawful decision of arresting the lawyers was made under the conditions of denying their involvement in the case.
Let us remind that this course of events took place on the background of the ANC-government dialogue, which arouses suspicions concerning the seriousness of that dialogue and the honesty of the government. Yesterday the ANC made a statement, in which was particularly said, “The Armenian National Congress condemns this provocation, perceives it as the government’s reaction to the started discussion in essence of the pre-term election in the framework of the dialogue. The large document presented by the ANC basically put the administration in an awkward position and they try to disrupt this discussion in essence by such moves. This explicitly shows that the regime, not having arguments on the claims of the Armenian National Congress to form a legitimate government through pre-term presidential and parliamentary elections, struggles against the Congress with brutal force as usual. It is not ruled out that taking the opportunity that Serzh Sargsyan is absent from the country, some forces are trying to disrupt the dialogue started between the Armenian National Congress and the government by this.
We demand the immediate release of all the youngsters and the punishment, in accordance with the law, of the police officers who used violence against both them and the lawyers.”
Yesterday “Aravot” also had a talk with head of “Helsinki Association” NGO Mikayel Danielyan who was the first to respond to the incident and spread a message through his website. Taking into account also the question asked on the social networks whether the ANC youngsters had the right to interfere in the police actions or to demand an explanation for those actions, we readdressed a question like that to M. Danielyan whether the ANC young activists know when, whom and how one must search, whether they realize on the very street, in a second whether the search is legal or not, whether the police officers have to give an explanation to them on that issue and if yes, maybe it makes sense to give the authority to the ANC “revolutionary committees” and let their young brigades take up the role of the law-enforcers or the auxiliaries of the latter, as it was in the distant revolutionary or Soviet times.
Before referring to this question, the human rights advocate first affirmed that the actions of the police officers accompanied by violence against the ANC activists and the series of illegal actions that followed and the arrest undoubtedly testified to the fact that it had a political context. Referring to our question, M. Danielyan said, “If I was there I would interfere. What right does a police officer have to demand a document or search, rebuke a citizen walking in the evening, in Yerevan? There is no violation of law in the actions of the young people. They think they are better aware of the laws in effect and try to give assistance to the others in such cases. I welcome that, also the fact that the young people are aware of their rights. They just had to realize what lay in store for them, as oppositionists, and whether they, as the Congress members, would not be more of assistance to the ANC at large.”