YOUNG PASHINYAN SUPPORTERS DETAINED, THEN RELEASED

Tert
Oct 27 2009
Armenia

Yesterday, Armenian National Congress (ANC) young activists Sargis
Gevorgyan and Sargis Khachatryan were taken to the police station
from outside Court of First Instance of Shengavit Community of Yerevan.

Gevorgyan and Khachatryan were the two young activists playing hand
drums while Nikol Pashinyan’s trial was taking place. Their drums
were seized, they were taken to the police station, and they were
kept in the custody of police for three hours and then released.

Speaking to Tert.am, Gevorgyan said they were standing for a long time
at the police station’s waiting room since the police officers who
took them there refused to draw up a protocol of apprehension, which
the Shengavit community police officers insisted should be drawn up.

The argument between the two sides got so heated that they started
to swear at each other.

According to Gevorgyan, the police officers said their chief told them
not to draw up a protocol, while Shengavit community officers insisted
that their chief told them a protocol must be issued. In any case, as
far as Gevorgyan understood, no protocol of apprehension was drawn up.

The young activists were released after they wrote a letter of
explanation.

"I wrote that I was presented an obviously illegal demand; I refused
to carry out the demand and I am going to continue my act of protest.

Then they asked me, why are you fighting? I wrote, [I am fighting] for
the reinstatement of constitutional order, for the speedy resignation
of the criminal governing leadership," Gevorgyan said.

According to the official explanation, the youth were taken to the
police station for disturbing the public order and for disturbing
the court’s normal work.

While the youth were being detained at the police station, ANC
representatives were waiting for them outside. One more incident took
place during that time. One of the police officers from the Shengavit
department began to threaten and push a journalist from local paper
Hayk who was standing at the pavement.

Speaking with Tert.am, the Hayk journalist, Ani Gevorgyan, said
she told the police officer she could leave and there was no need
to push her. The officer threatened her by saying, "You shall see,
remember my face, remember this day well and you shall see."