Opposition Bright Armenia MP Ani Samsonyan, Deputy Chairwoman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs, condemned the use of excessive force by police against women protesters outside the Armenian government building on Wednesday.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, the lawmaker said a number of videos spread on the internet show use of excessive force by police officers against not only participants of the protest organized by the VETO social-political movement, but also reporters fulfilling their professional duties at the time.
A video released by Tert.am news outlet shows police using force to detain Varduhi Ishkhanyan, the spouse of politician Vazgen Manukyan. Another footage released by it shows police brutality against the female protesters of VETO. A similar video has been released by News.am.
Ani Samsonyan cited Article 29 of the law “On Police”, according to which police officers may use force, special means and firearms to perform their duties, if their fulfillment is impossible by other means.
“We state that police have the right to use force or special means, but it must be proportionate to the goal pursued and the specific situation. Therefore, I have applied to the Armenian police chief to investigate whether the April 7 actions of police were proportionate to the given situation and the latter did not abuse their powers under Article 29 of the law “On Police”; whether their actions do not contain elements of a crime envisaged by Article 164 (Part 2) of the Criminal Code of Armenia dealing with obstructing a journalist's lawful professional activity or forcing them to disseminate or refuse to disseminate news through abuse of official powers; whether or not their actions amount to a crime envisaged by Article 163 (Part 1) of the Criminal Code concerning obstruction of lawful rallies and whether the detained persons were informed about the grounds for their detention and their rights in that status,” she wrote.