On the morning of June 23rd, police brutally dispersed peaceful demonstrators from Yerevan’s Baghramyan Avenue, where they were staging a sit-in against recent electricity price hikes.
Riot police moved toward the crowd at 5:30 AM with a water cannon truck and began hosing down the protesters. Soon after, plain clothes police officers hemmed in the demonstrators and began physically removing them.
Various reports of individual police abuse have also been verified by videos uploaded to the internet showing officers beating, chasing, and dragging peaceful protesters. Journalists were also attacked and had their cameras broken despite announcing their professional credentials to police.
A reported 237 people are currently in detention in police stations throughout Yerevan and cities such as Abovyan, and Ahstarak. Dozens have reported injuries with some being hospitalized.
This unnecessary and disproportionate use of force against overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrators is a clear violation of the right to freedom of assembly, recognized in national Armenian law and international human rights to which it is a party.
We have also received news of detainees being interrogated at police stations by unidentified officers—without proper legal representatives present—and being criminally charged for “hooliganism.” Such unlawful interrogation cannot be admitted into any subsequent trials. Furthermore, the vast majority of protesters were remarkably peaceful, making the charges of hooliganism and reported forced drug and alcohol examinations under custody even more alarming.
FAVL strongly condemns the excessive abuse of force by police officers in response to the legitimate expression of dissent by peaceful citizens. We call on the authorities to ensure that no prosecutions are brought against individuals who were peacefully participating in the demonstration. We consider any person imprisoned solely for their legal right to assemble and peacefully express their civic dissent to be a prisoner of conscience.
We also call on the authorities to launch effective investigations into all allegations of abuse of force by police officers and bring those responsible to justice.
FAVL