“The ANC activists that were taken detained to the police station just broke the public order. That was an administrative detention, however, fingerprints were taken, and question of accusation character were given. These are prosecutions elements”, – so responded attorney Ara Ghazaryan, to the question of Aravot of to what extent the European case law is applied in Armenia. He assured that such a situation has been registered for years, these cases can be sent to the European court without examining them. Further, he detailed, “from the viewpoint of exercising the European case law, we have good precedents of detention by the Court of Cassation, which are not applicable in practice. The important issue that bothers me is the administrative detention procedure, which is distorted in Armenia. The case law may have a great role there, where the Court of Cassation’s case will be necessary to express position about it. The way that the police executes it, it shows that its true objective is distorted. We believe that in many cases under the administrative proceeding, a criminal prosecution is conducted.” Aravot.am asked the Minister of Justice Hrayr Tovmasyan whether the assertion that ANC activists had no right to take fingerprints, whether he considers it fundamental, the Minister responded, “In this case, I will be not original and say that I am going to be refrained from giving assessments to such cases that are in the court instances. My any word may affect investigation process or judicial authorities. Let me not break this principle. One day, when I will no longer be a minister, as usual, I will analyze these issues.” To our observation whether the ministerial position hampers Mr. Tovmasyan, he responded, “Not hampers, but is putting restrictions before you based on the position. Like in everyday life you cannot behave yourself free, the same for these positions.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
