Dozens of suits against RA civic activists are found in the courts of Armenia. These are the lawsuits against the civic activists participating in the protests organized in front of Yerevan City Hall against bus fare increase, the red-line markings in the streets, Komitas 5 and other controversial decisions. Another trend is observed recently. The RA Police loses the countersuits submitted for these case. For instances, civil activist Vahagn Minasyan’s claim against the police was granted. In some cases, this is attributed to organizing a “PR” to the courts, in other cases it is qualified as a political instruction “issued from the top”. In most of civil activists’ cases, human rights defender Artak Zeinalyan, acting as defendant’s representative, today, after the court hearing of civil activist Sevak Mamyan’s case, said the following with this regard, “The police actions were illegitimate. The police claim was unsubstantiated, and the courts in this specific case have performed a fair judicial act.” Artak Zeinalyan noted that “although it is mentioned that there are changes in the judicial system, but they are not happy with the paces made.” Then, he continued, “Not everyone is fully pleased with the judicial acts.” Referring to the RA Police actions against civil activists, Mr. Zeinalyan said, “The goal was to suspend the freedom of implementing peaceful rallies, to break the participants’ will. We have civic activists that have participated in the protest, who were detained by the police more than 20 times. 13 lawsuits are filed against Vahagn, and with these 13-14 lawsuits, they want to charge him to fifty thousand drams for each. Not all cases brought are against him. This suggests that taking him to the police and keeping him there for three hours is pursuing another objective than was presented to him that he has disobeyed the lawful demand of the police. The police use this as a substitution to administrative detentions. This proves that the police are not going to serve not the people, to exercise people’s power on behalf of the people, but to serve the interests of certain groups.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
