“Irrespective of the person’s formal status, the person deprived of liberty shall enjoy all the guarantees,” – said human rights activist Arman Tatosyan, on October 15, at the two-day legal training program for journalists organized by the Office of the Human Rights Defense jointly with the German Society for International Cooperation.
He emphasized that deprivation of freedom implies itself that the police officer imposes the person in his will or against his will not to leave anywhere, to stay in one place, takes him to the police station or a planned destination, or if the person voluntarily arrives at the place specified by the police officers and is unable to voluntarily leave this place, “Even if a person is stopped by a police officer on the street and begins conducting an interrogation, from that very moment, the European Court also has precedents, the person shall be doomed to be deprived of freedom. Why is it important to exactly determine the moment of deprivation of freedom? Because the rights emerge from that moment. Our legislation on administrative violations does not provide for any such mechanism. This is conditioned by the fact that I applied to the Constitutional Court and the first court hearing was scheduled for January. This attaches importance to this lawsuit because it will envisage a fundamental change in the legislation system on administrative violations. I am disputing the provisions on administrative detention with regard to the deprivation of freedom, the detention, and detention of offender and the law on “The Police”, where we have regulations, which are inconsistent with the international standards.”
Arman Tatosyan said that the Code of Administrative Offenses has a problematic settlement: the three hours of administrative detention is counted from the moment of reporting, which is problematic, “The detention term cannot be counted from that moment. This led to the fact that the detainees are registered in the registration-book without a decision, and this is the problem that is reasoned, the person is not deprived of freedom, consequently, there can be no word about the violation of any law.”
Ami CHICHAKYAN
