Yervand Aghabalyan, forcibly displaced from Artsakh at the end of September, was detained for one month n June 17, 2023. His lawyer Roman Yeritsyan informed Forrights.am that there is no basis for arrest.
“It’s just a political order. Yervand Aghabalyan is accused of hooliganism for throwing an empty plastic bottle. Moreover, the video recordings do not show that he was the thrower. The investigator requested to detain Yervand for a period of 2 months.
In the video presented to the court by the Investigative Committee, it can be seen that a young man, whose face is not visible, after witnessing the sight of a citizen’s hand (wrist) being torn off by the explosion of a sound grenade, angrily picks up an empty plastic bottle from the ground and throws it forward. The policeman also testified that the young man is Yervand,” explained the lawyer.
Yervand Aghabalyan, a participant in the last 3 Artsakh wars, was charged with hooliganism. By the decision of the judge of the criminal court of the first instance of Yerevan, John Hayrapetyan, he was detained for a period of one month.
Forrights.am visited Yervand’s wife and two young children (1 and 4 years old), who were in a desperate situation. His wife, Margarita, found out about the arrest on the evening of the 17th of the month.
“To tell the truth, I was surprised when I heard the news, because Yervand was participating in a peaceful demonstration on June 12 in Baghramyan Avenue, even we were supposed to participate with our children, but we couldn’t make it. In addition to that, a day before, the Investigative Committee called him in connection with another case, where he just drove by with his car, which he uses for taxi service. The next day, in the morning, two people in civilian clothes came after Yervand in a car and took him away, and later we learned that his trial will take place,” Yervand’s wife said with excitement.
She cannot come to terms with the fact that although her husband’s face does not appear in the video recordings, he was still detained. “Or even if he threw an empty plastic bottle in an unknown direction, should he bedetained for a month and the family deprived of its only breadearner?” They could have just fined or applied some other measure. Now, how will we live and pay the rent? Yervand is a calm, disciplined person by nature. He was just participating in a peaceful demonstration, which everyone has the right to do. They throw glass bottles at each other on the street, break them, and the police doesn’t even pay attention. I don’t want to believe that the people of Artsakh are being specifically targeted,” Margarita presented the bewildered situation.
After being forcibly displaced from Artsakh, the family settled in Armavir region of Armenia, but because they had problems with employment, they moved to Yerevan. Since May of this year, they rented an apartment and Yervand worked in the taxi service. Margarita has a baby; she does not work. She still takes care of her 1 and 4 year old children. Along with all this, they also do not benefit from the 50,000 drams support provided by the RA government for housing rent compensation to the people of Artsakh, because the husband has a share of his father’s house, which does not exceed 20 square meters.
“According to the decision of the RA government, those citizens whose share does not exceed 20 square meters should receive rent compensation, but we do not receive it. We left everything in Artsakh and were trying to settle here.
We were displaced from Stepanakert on September 24. My husband, Yervand, was a contract soldier. On September 19, he was in defense positions. Only God knows what we went through, what feelings we had… It was terrible… When my husband finally joined us, we left for Armenia. I was in such a psychologically unstable and tense state that I took almost nothing from home, not even the children’s clothes and even food. And the hellish journey of 2 days was a calamity in its turn. Thank God, the people gave a cookie my daughter…” Margarita said, restraining her excitement somehow.
The family forcibly displaced from Artsakh is now in a desperate situation. According to the woman, if her husband stays in prison for a month, they will not be able to survive. In fact, the RA Investigative Committee detained Yervand Aghabalyan for one month for no reason, not taking into account his family circumstances, in particular, the deprivation of his 2 young children from a breadearner, and therefore from a provider of living conditions.
It should be noted that the RA Investigative Committee has already informed that on June 12, 2024, criminal proceedings have been initiated and large-scale investigative and administrative operations are being carried out in order to find out the circumstances of the incident. As a result of the examination of petitions presented to the court, detention was chosen as a preventive measure for 8 persons, house arrest for two. An absence ban was applied to one person.
Zara Mayilyan