As we know, the police have also detained Canadian-Armenian actress Arsinée Khanjyan. Aravot.am asked her lawyer Aramazd Kiviryan to present the details, “She is detained to the unit of police forces, which is located in Isakov Avenue. Frankly speaking, I have no information whether she was taken there immediately or not because initially, there was no information about her location. After visiting various police departments and learning that she is not there, later we found out that she was taken there. She as well as many other citizens were detained without any explanation, just for the fact that given person was there, in other words, no explanation was provided why they are detained. No explanation was provided about the rights, in other words, the person was deprived of her minimum rights, which she could administer in the meantime at least the right of one phone call to contact the lawyer and so on. They have also confiscated the phone. She was kept there illegally for a long time, and then she was released,” – he said.
Aramazd Kiviryan mentioned that his rights as a lawyer were also restricted, “When we arrived, we were not allowed to go in. At first, they even said that she is not there. Simply, we were not so much filled with confidence in the system and, naturally, we did not believe their words and insisted that we have the information that she is here and to report his superiors that we are here. At that time, as Arsinée Khanjyan said, she was inside along with superior, when the police officers approached and reported that the lawyers are waiting downstairs, and they were released. I immediately called 102 and reported that I want to provide a legal assistance to my client as a lawyer but I was not given this opportunity because the police did not allow me to go in. I should mention that there were other lawyers there who were in the similar status, in other words, they were not allowed to go up. Moreover, again the same scenario was repeated, many people had gathered there trying to find out whether the person named this-and-this is there or not, at first, they were saying, not, there is no such a person here. Actually, this was done exclusively for the purpose to make the citizens go away.” Aramazd Kiviryan told us that Arsinée Khanjyan was also kept in the sports hall. She described the police actions a kidnapping and noted that she does not see any legitimate function, “The police are acting unlawfully and these illegalities are growing over the time.
This means that if earlier these illegalities were not so great by their size, now, in these days, we can say that they have reached the maximum. I have no clue what will come after this because there is various information that the police is dropping illegal weapons into the pockets of the persons. I do not know, of course, to what extent this information is true, however, I believe that such a thing can happen because it is expected at least from our police. Naturally, it is very sad that the police have performed such a specific action against Arsinée Khanjyan, however, no citizen’s rights should be violated, including Arsinée Khanjyan’s, as well as other citizen’s right of the Republic of Armenia for in this respect everybody is equal before the law.
Although, indeed, given Arsinée Khanjyan’s personality, I think that the police should not have gone for such an operation at all. However, you see what is going on, in other words, the situation there is such a mess, I cannot describe it in other words, that they are ready to detain all citizens without exception who were trying somehow to assist those who are organizing a protest and fighting there.”
Aramazd Kiviryan also talked about the legal mechanisms, “Naturally, the police actions can be appealed by administrative order but it is not an administration issue here. Here, I would primarily recommend filing a report with the police department. Let the SIS deal with this issue because in essence, some people in masks are actually kidnapping people and take them to other place but not to the police department, they are taking them to the police units where they are keeping them illegally, seizing their property, make for illegal searches and so on and so forth … Naturally, it initially is subject to qualification in the sense of criminal law. And I recommend all the citizens who are affected by the actions of the police to apply to relevant authorities. Certainly, with a hope that the relevant authorities will carry out certain actions, I cannot do it because it turns out that you are applying to the body, which has committed an illegal act. Nevertheless, it should not stop, however, this does not mean that you should sit idle, however, it is necessary to fight to the end.”
Ami CHICHAKYAN
