Chairman of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor Artur Sakunts is going to present reports to international organizations pertaining to concealing by the police and investigative committee the cases of violence against war veterans and other activist citizens. “We regularly talk about the acts of violence by the police in our reports, and we are going to present the recent cases to the UN, the Council of Europe and the European Union”, said Artur Sakunts to Aravot.am.
He believes that the police concealed the acts of violence against the war veterans by silence. “Media reports on crimes and the materials that contain information about the crime or offense are enough grounds to file criminal cases. Regardless of whether there would be written appeals by war veterans about the crime or not, the investigation committee should have filed a criminal case at once. When a reference is made that there is no appeal by the persons, and the appeal is transferred to the private domain, this more comes to conceal dangerous crimes from the public view.”
According to human right defender, deputy police chief Levon Yeranosyan’s statement about cutting off the ears was a public threat. “He publicly threatened that if someone says anything about Serzh Sargsyan, he would cut off the ears. Yeranosyan already testifies that he has heard someone saying something, which upset him. These words were enough to file a criminal case by SIS. Law enforcement agencies are inactive and reasoned that the war veterans have not complained. On the other hand, the war veterans, who are acting as defenders of public interests, who submit a claim of solving the matter of the citizens and the country, should have been proactive and submit a complaint; there is an issue of legal consciousness here, it’s not a private case, but an act of violence addressed to the public.” He does not consider the argument of the war veterans that they do not submit a claim to the police about the crime because they have no confidence in the law enforcement system justified.
Arpine SIMONYAN
