The case of beating lawyers Emmanuel Ananyan and Marzpet Avagyan in the Erebuni Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was preceded by the case of torture against their minor client.
Lawyer Emmanuel Ananyan says that his client and several other young people were tortured by the police both during their detention and at the police station. “My client and several minors were tortured and abused during the arrest and in the police building. 4-5 minors were abused. They had the status of arrested,” Ananyan told Forrights.am.
Criminal proceedings have been initiated regarding the case of child abuse, and their lawyers in this case are bound by the pre-trial confidentiality obligation.
It is only known that the children were detained as well as abused by policemen dressed in regular citizens’ clothings.
“According to the police, the incident happened the following way: several police officers in civilian clothes approached a small group of young people on the street and made some demands, posing as police officers, showing their badges, but, again according to the police, knowing that they were police officers, the children resisted. This is what the police say. We say that the torture took place both during police custody and in separate rooms at the police station, in the form of beatings and insults. The police officers kept each of them in separate rooms, performing humiliating actions against them”, – presents Emmanuel Ananyan.
As for his client who was beaten, the lawyer says that the child studies at the Romanos Melikyan State Music College and is not ill-tempered by nature. “My confidant says that he neither cursed nor hit anyone. He is a student at a vocal department of the music college, and that says a lot about the kind of person he is. He is not a bully,” says Ananyan.
The lawyer does not have the authority to tell details about the torture case, but he notes that a dace-to face meeting was arranged between the police officers and his client within the framework of the criminal proceedings.
It was during this meeting that the police inspector and other officers attacked and beat the lawyers, which Forrights.am has already reported about.
Changes in approaches and reforms in the police system are announced from the highest levels of government. In one of his speeches, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that as a result of reforms in the police system, there should be “establishment of new police-citizen relations”. However, various representatives of the civil society claim that police violence against citizens in Armenia, disproportionate restrictions on human rights and freedoms have not only not disappeared, but have significantly increased in 2022.
According to the Helsinki Civil Assembly’s Vanadzor office, 199 cases of human rights violations were recorded based on media publications. Compared to the previous year, the number of cases increased by 20.1% (or 40 cases), and compared to the post-revolutionary 2019, by 54.8% (or 109 cases).
The number of cases of violation of human rights of participants in gatherings and protests by police officers increased by 47.8% (or 94 cases) in 2022 compared to 2021, and by 72.8% compared to 2019. with (or 131 cases).
It is noted that 2022 was unprecedented in terms of illegal and disproportionate actions of the police against minors. Violence was used against the citizens even when they were actually in the “hands” of the police officers and could not show any resistance.
“Thus, in 2022 the cases of human rights violations by police officers doubled, and, during the gatherings, exceeded the lowest post-revolutionary index more than three times”, concluded the Vanadzor office of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly.
Hasmik Hambardzumyan