President of the Committee for Protection of Freedom of Speech, Ashot Meliqyan believes that last year during the demonstrations of “ElectricYerevan” charges should have been made against dozens of policemen for using psychical violence against journalist and preventing from their professional work. “Only after the incidents in Sari Tagh and Khorenatsi street when president Serzh Sargasyan apologized to the journalists, the activities of the Special Investigation Service intensified a little bit and charges appeared not only for those July-events but also a charge was made against those four policemen for the issue of June 23, 2015. However, I think that those taken measures were not equivalent to the volume of those violence and hindrances, which actually had taken place.
It can be deduced from today’s facts and activities of the Special Investigation Service that four policemen subjected 21 journalists to physical violence and prevented from their work. It is ridiculous because the whole Internet is full of the videos in which we see both the orders of the high ranking officers and the activities of the policemen, who abused their authorities. It is clear that dozens of charges should have already been brought by this case, those shots show everything. But today, after one and a half year, only four policemen are brought to responsibility, who might not have been the most active ones there. I think that many policemen including the high ranking ones, avoided responsibility”.
According to Mr. Melikyan, observations started to be made just after the incidents of “Electric Yerevan”, “The majority of the journalists and cameramen, including their lawyers persisted in claiming that those preliminary investigations were fictitious, there was an intent to obscure that case. During the past one year and two months, when there were 21 injured journalists and there was no accused or suspected, perhaps that fact itself proved that our colleagues and lawyers were right in their evaluations”. Note that the case of committing violence against the journalists and preventing from their work is in the Court of General Jurisdiction of First Instance of Kentron and Norq Marash administrative district but the previous two court sessions did not take place as the judge was on vacation.
Arpine SIMONYAN
