The police are working by means of extraction of testimonies
Misha Mkhitaryan, an elderly resident of the Zolakar village in Gegharkunik region, announces that his grandson, the 18-years-old Hayk Mkhitaryan, is being pursued by the police, who have abducted and abused him. Hayk has just returned from Russia and has been undergoing medical examinations for being drafted into the army.
According to the Mkhitaryans, at 12:00 am on August 12, Nor Nork district Criminal Intelligence Division employees visited their home. Two of them showed police certificates, but never introduced themselves. They told Hayk that there were problems with his phone card and he had go to the Yerevan police department for clarification of the issues. They did not submit a written police notification.
At that time, Hayk had to go and visit a doctor therefore the grandfather opposed the grandson to be taken to the police. “We don’t care; if you do not come, we will take other steps,” told the police. “I went with them. On the way, they asked my grandson, ‘who is helping you to get rid of the army, whatever you are going to do, we will help you’. Then they said, ‘Look here, do what we are telling you, or we will go down to the forest and will tell you everything in more harsh ways’. They drove us to the station,” said Hayk Mkhitaryan.
The young man tells that he was scared because the police were talking with threats and blasphemy. They continued the same way in the police station too and they hit him:
“I told them not to curse and they hit me. Then, they took me to a colonel. There was a fatty man sitting there with the colonel. They told me to tell everything, otherwise I would go and rot in prisons.”
Neither the police who visited the Mkhitaryans, nor those who interviewed him in the police department told their names. They tried to find out where he knew from a certain Arayik. Hayk tells Forrights.am that Arayik is a friend of his father, he had sent the film of his head trauma’s medical examination to Moscow through Arayik so that the doctors could see and comment on his head injury.
“The policeman said, ‘Look, son of a bitch, who do you think you are?, I`ll hit and break your head , don’t you understand where you are?’ Hayk tells us. “I`ve been to Russia for 8 years and I do not know how to write in Armenian. They were writing on a paper and telling me to draw the letters exactly the same way on my piece of paper. Since I do not know how to read in Armenian, I did not understand what I drawing. They told me to say that I have gave $2,000 to Arayik for six months deferment from the draft. But nothing like that ever happened: they forced me, so I said it has happened. They were saying, ‘Say this, or your father will not be able to work anymore, we will get him, and how would your family live then?’ But I want to say that I wanted to serve in the army, there was no truth in what they were saying. They brought a paper, I signed it, and they said ‘you’ll live, you are a smart guy’,” says Hayk Mkhitaryan.
A criminal case was instituted on this case, in which Araik Antonyan was involved as an accused. His lawyer, Armen Soghomonyan, told Forrights.am that the actions against his client as well as Hayk Mkhitaryan were illegal.
“There has been a specific torture against that child. Certainly, they used the methods of the 90s to get testimonies and subject people to criminal prosecution with these testimonies. Unequivocally, there was no basis for criminal prosecution.”