The lawmaker, Ashot Simonian, was assaulted 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 suspended one of the policemen, Gevorg Mkrtchian, at the time pending an “internal inquiry” into their behavior condemned by opposition leaders and human rights campaigners. The Investigative Committee subsequently opened a criminal case in connection with the incident.
A spokesman for the ministry told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Monday that Mkrtchian’s suspension was invalidated recently because of that investigation. He said the police will decide whether to take disciplinary action against Mkrtchian or the other officers only after it is over.
None of the policemen has been charged with misconduct so far. Prosecutor-General Anna Vardapetian said during a parliamentary hearing last month that the video of Simonian’s beating is not sufficient grounds for prosecuting them.
For his part, Argishti Kyaramian, the controversial head of the Investigative Committee, blamed Simonian for the lack of progress in the probe. Kyaramian complained that the opposition lawmaker refuses to be questioned by investigators.
Simonian countered on Monday that he sees no point in such questioning because there are no formal suspects in the case. He accused the law-enforcement authorities of seeking to cover up the police violence.
“It’s naïve, to say the least, to expect justice from this system,” he said. “There won’t be justice.”
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.