AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SAYS ARMENIA’S LAW ENFORCEMENT DID NOT CONDUCT EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION IN SHANT HAROUTIUNYAN CASE

by Ashot Safaryan

Friday, February 27, 11:11

Amnesty International Report 2014/15 “The State Of The World’s Human
Rights” addressed also Armenia’s problems in the field. Particularly,
the report highlights such problems as restriction of the freedom of
assembly and use of violence by police against peaceful demonstrators.

According to Amnesty International “Peaceful protesters were dispersed
by police using excessive force in several instances. Police broke
up peaceful protests using excessive force on a number of occasions
throughout the year.”

As for tortures ands other ill-treatment, the report says local
(Armenian) human rights defenders continued to raise concern over
high numbers of reported beatings and ill-treatment in police custody.

The document spotlight the investigation in the case of Shant
Haroutiunyan, leader of “Tseghakron” Party, who is currently serving
his sentence in a penitentiary.

“Authorities still had to effectively investigate the allegations of
ill-treatment in custody of the opposition leader Shatn Harutyunyan.

Shatn Harutyunyan and 13 other activists were arrested following
clashes with the police on 5 November 2013, when they were attempting
to march to the presidential building. Allegations of ill-treatment
by two activists detained during protests on 7 March also remained
without effective investigation,” Amnesty International reports.

To recall, 37 people were arrested after clashes with the police in
the course of the protest action “March of Millions of Masks” on Nov
5 in Yerevan. Four police officers and a teen were injured during the
incident, 20 of the detained have been arrested. On Nov the families
of the detainees held protest actions demanding their release. On
December 18 one of the detainees, leader of Tseghakron Party Shant
Haroutiunyan filed a complaint to the investigation against the ban
on meetings with the family. The ban was not lifted however. Later,
Haroutiunyan was sentenced to 6 years in prison.