Yesterday, nine activists who were informing about the Pre-Parliament scheduled rally on May 16 were apprehended from the central streets of the city by the police officers. Around 3 a.m., the activities divided into various groups were posting the “May 16” notice on the sidewalks of the street. The police officers considered their actions as a disturbance of public order and detained them. As told by Ani Hakobyan who was among the detainees, the police officers following them were erasing the notices posted by them and causing a failure to their awareness campaign. “At that time, there are not much people on the street, and it was convenient to carry out our action.
Our actions were lawful, the Administrative Code reads that an administrative penalty is imposed for improper use of public spaces, but it is not written which is the proper usage and which is the improper. The police officers had no right to apprehend us because it is not defined whether or not it is allowed to write something on the streets.” He also said that they had not heard of any legal claim from the police officers. “They were standing keeping mum, they were only saying, “you’re breaking the law”, we were asking, “Which law?’, they were silent.” He also said that they were brought to administrative penalty by the Administrative Code, Article 182. This Article reads a fine of 50.000 AMD.
Aprine SIMONYAN
