The lawmaker, Ashot Simonian, was assaulted in May by several dozen members of a special police unit outside the Yerevan headquarters of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), a major opposition party involved in the protests led by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian. An amateur footage of the incident showed them punching, kicking and swearing at Simonian.
The Armenian Interior Ministry claimed to have launched at the time an “internal inquiry” into the policemen’s behavior condemned by opposition leaders and human rights campaigners. The ministry said hours later that one of the officers was suspended by the national police as a result.
Another law-enforcement agency, the Investigative Committee, subsequently opened a criminal case in connection with the incident. It has not charged anyone so far.
Agnesa Khamoyan, another parliamentarian representing the main opposition Hayastan alliance, challenged Vardapetian to explain this fact during a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday which was also attended by other senior law-enforcement officials.
“The video is not [sufficient] evidence,” replied Vardapetian, who worked as a legal adviser to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian before becoming the country’s chief prosecutor two years ago.
“When there is sufficient evidence the decision will be made,” she said. “As I’ve just said, every decision is made on the basis of sufficient evidence.”
Argishti Kyaramian, the controversial head of the Investigative Committee, defended his agency’s failure to indict any of the violent policemen. He said that while the policemen’s actions are “clearly visible” in the video of incident “the question is how they should be characterized.”
Kyaramian also complained that Simonian has refused to be questioned by the investigators. He claimed that this is why the video cannot be used for filing criminal charges.
Khamoyan dismissed that explanation. She argued that law-enforcement authorities were quick to arrest and prosecute in April an opposition activist who insulted a pro-government lawmaker, Hakob Aslanian, on a public bus in Yerevan.
“The opposition activist was arrested one hour after the incident, even before the deputy [Aslanian] filed a complaint,” said Khamoyan.
Simonian was beaten up as riot police unblocked streets in Yerevan closed by protesters demanding Pashinian’s resignation. About 300 of them were detained that day.
Dozens of other, ordinary protesters were also seriously injured by the police after Archbishop Galstanian launched his campaign for regime change on May 9. No policeman has been suspended, let alone prosecuted, over those incidents. The authorities have prosecuted instead at least 59 supporters of Galstanian on various charges denied by them.