The activist of “Counterblow” group, Artak Gevorgyan, does not yet think about yesterday’s police violence against his and appealing the decision of the police to exposing him to administrative penalty. He claims that he had not participated in the photojournalist Narek Aleksanyan’s yesterday’s street exhibition, and was just a viewer.
He told that he had gone to watch the exhibition by motorcycle, at that time he was approached by two police officers, who requested the documents of the motorcycle. “Later, the police officers contacted and 3 vehicles of patrols approached us, also 5 red biretta wearing people running came to us. They asked me whether I was the one who posted the pictures on the walls, I said, no, they asked, and who has done it, I said, I do not want to answer, I am not obliged to answer. They twisted my hands, made me lie down right in the middle of the street, put handcuffs on my hands and with terribly bad manners made me get into the car. They wanted to enter into my pocket in the car to take my phone and the keys to motorcycle, I resisted.”
On the way to Kentron Police Department, he tried to call the Ombudsman’s office, but the police disallowed him. “They had not removed the handcuffs from my hands and I was sitting on the couch when a police officer approached me and asked who allowed me to sit on the couch and took me to stand at the wall. As a sign of protest, I lay down on the floor until the deputy chief came. In the meantime, they did not allow me to call a lawyer and I have not answered their questions, I refused to sign papers, I refused to give testimony. Three hours later, I was released.”
Artak Gevorgyan told that the pictures at the exhibition were mostly about the city views, but there were also pictures of a woman, police violence against demonstrators. The activist was exposed to administrative responsibility for failure to obey the lawful demand of the police and littering the public places. But he insists that he is not involved in posting the pictures and has not received any claim from the police.
Arpine SIMONYAN
Photo from Artak Gevorgyan’s Facebook page
