Lawyer Hayk Alumyan assured that we have such police officers who are capable to throw a weapon in one’s pocket to build a case
Yesterday, the red berets carried out a mass detention of citizens in Khorenatsi Street near the Petrol-Sentry Regiment area. They were disrespectfully treating the women and grandmothers. In the same disrespectful manner, they detained famous film actress Arsine Khanjyan. President of “Asbarez” Press Club, Levon Barseghyan’s accusations of “illegal keeping of cool steel” was legally more ridiculous and perhaps precedential than yesterday’s events. Member of “Founding Parliament”, Armen Mikaelyan was arrested under the Article for illegal carrying out weapons and ammunition. He reported that yesterday, he was kidnapped at night, handcuffed and they put a weapon into his pocket against his will. His lawyer Yervand Vardanyan has stated that Armen Mikaelyan has provided the details of how the police officers had put a gun onto his waist on the way to the police station, “to the point, not once as it was difficult to hold the weapon in that part for a long time.”
In an interview with “Aravot”, assessing the incident highly negative, lawyer Hayk Alumyan said that if these cases are reached the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), there would be stormy judgments against Armenia regarding the illegal detention of the citizens. According to him, in the case of being consistent, it is possible to achieve success, even the fact that Armenia will reimburse not only physical but also moral damages caused to these people, and those who had given the commands will be punished. The lawyer explained, “Simply, it is necessary to be consistent with it. Now, I see mass arrests, imprisonments but I am sure that even one percent of these cases will not reach the European Court.”
To our question of why, Mr. Alumyan replied, “I do not know what is the true reason that so few complaints are addressed to the ECHR from Armenia but my judgments are based on the situation until now.” Mr. Alumyan also expressed concern with regard to the work of the Ombudsman, “I assess the Ombudsman’s passive stance negative and I am surprised at the silence of the international organizations.”
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Mr. Alumyan considered the accusations against Levon Barseghyan are ridiculous and noted, “If someone is detained for carrying a cool steel, then he is almost a crystal man, they could not find anything else no matter how they searched. Should he have a questionable prestige, they could put a drug into his pocket and arrest him, but Levon Barseghyan is not the man against who they could accuse of keeping drugs or, more seriously, weapons at the time of detention, therefore, they have circulated this kind of ridiculous suspicion. This indicated that there is nothing against this man, hence they have to state such ridiculous excuse.”
In response to our question of whether it is expected of the police to put a weapon into the pocket of the member of “Founding Parliament” for “building a case”, as he insists, Mr. Alumyan replied, “Generally, I would not say about the police, but yes, we have police officers who are capable of doing it. We also have such investigators who are ready to initiate a criminal case based on these data being sure that it was a fabricated case.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
