Another irresponsible statement

Or the Chief of Police of the RA violated the presumption of innocence

Chief of Police of the RA Alik Sargsyan stated as early as yesterday at a press conference that 7 activists of the Congress, Tigran Arakelyan, Vahagn Gevorgyan, Artak Karapetyan, Sargis Gevorgyan, Sahak, Muradyan, Areg Gevorgyan and Davit Kiramijyan will be charged. Some of his claims made on that day the counselors of “the seven” perceived as a violation of the presumption of innocence. Yesterday counselor Hovik Arzumanyan referred to other statements of the Chief of Police of the RA during a conversation with “Aravot”. According to him, Alik Arzumanyan’s claim that during the August 9 incident it took the police officers 20 minutes to restrain the hooligans and to take them in, that the youngsters were resisting the police officers during that time means that the police officers were unable to stop “the hooliganism”, which Arsenyan doubts, “What resistance are they talking about? The rank and file of the police conducting the external service, service of keeping the social order was technically armed, would put handcuffs and that’s it, would take them to the police station. What 20 minutes?” He is convinced that the incident provokers were the police officers themselves, “The Chief of Police says a citizen took his dog out for a walk without a muzzle, the police officers reprimanded him, and at that moment the ANC youngsters came up, insulted, and cursed the police officers… My dear, ask your police officer could he not respond to a citizen’s question about the legality of his action, I am very glad that you are trying to protect another person’s rights, but the reality is that a dog cannot be taken to a public place without a muzzle. I am convinced that this very police officer was who, as it usually happens, immediately came back and went, who are you to interfere, man? And certainly, that’s how it started. The police officer was who provoked, because they saw “a Levon guy”, and I pity that the Chief of Police presents them as “a scapegoat”. He also stated that, being the Chief of Police of the RA, he shouldn’t have ordered “tomorrow at seven the charge will be made. You have already mixed the wet with the dry, my friend; you state that the ANC activists provoked the incident, meanwhile the argue started between two of the arrested seven, Tigran Arakelyan and Artak Karapetyan, and the police officers, while the other five passing by saw their friends on the ground and tried to help. How can you take those five in, level them to those two and say they are hooligans, they showed resistance. At least, those five should be released.”
Arsenyan also made a remark that on the whole territory of the republic only in the center of the capital was where they “resisted” the police officers and asked a rhetoric question why was it so? “I think it is not accidental. In Kentron (center) is where the police have the task of creating an atmosphere of fear. They say these arrests should not be politicized and the police officers themselves politicized them, when they saw “Levon people” and throw them to the ground.”
Counselors Stepan Voskanyan and Varduhi Elbakyan commented on another two statements of the Chief of Police of the RA. In particular, S. Voskanyan denied Alik Sargsyan’s statement that the young people had not been beaten up, but had been injured during taking them in. Meanwhile, according to the counselor’s claim, he saw the boys’ body injuries on the head, arms, back, legs, and a wound with a deep scar on the forehead of one of them, Davit Kiramijyan, “Therefore, saying that nobody touched them, nobody injured them does not correspond to the reality. In any case, those injuries could not have appeared by themselves.”  And counselor Varduhi Elbakyan also said that the boys were beaten up at the Kentron police station during a conversation with “Aravot”. According to her, Artak Karapetyan said that they had been beaten up, in particular, he too, in the presence of the Chief of Police of Kentron. Mrs. Elbakyan also denied the statement of the Chief of Police that three youngsters had been drunk. According to her and other counselors, the sobriety of the taken in was checked with a special tool on the very day of taking them in and in the presence of the counselors, and they were all sober.