An Armenian human rights campaigner is facing up to five years in prison for allegedly assaulting two police officers that visited him after he claimed to have been intimidated by government loyalists during the municipal elections in Yerevan.
Arshaluys Hakobian, a member of the Armenian Helsinki Association (AHA), monitored the May 31 vote in the capital along with the chairman of the group, Mikael Danielian. The two men say they were forced to leave a polling station in Yerevan’s Malatia-Sebastia district, the main election trouble spot, after witnessing and protesting against vote irregularities.
Hakobian lodged a formal complaint with Armenia’s Special Investigative Service (SIS), a law-enforcement agency subordinated to state prosecutors. The SIS responded by summoning him for questioning.
Hakobian was taken to the police department of Yerevan’s central Kentron district on June 5 after a bitter argument with two police officers that visited his apartment and handed him a SIS summons. He was charged with assaulting the officers and remanded in pre-trial custody the next day. The accusation carries hefty fines and up to five years’ imprisonment.
A police statement last week claimed that Hakobian punched one of the policemen and slapped the other after they “reprimanded” him for being drunk and wrongly signing the document. The AHA activist strongly denies that, according to his defense lawyer and representatives of Armenia’s state human rights ombudsman who visited him in Yerevan’s Nubarashen prison.
Danielian likewise insisted on Monday that Hakobian did not attack the policemen and was himself beaten up at the Kentron police. He claimed to have obtained photographs of his comrade showing traces of violence on his face and head.
The official version of events has also been dismissed by several international and regional human rights organizations. In a joint statement issued last week, they demanded the immediate release of Hakobian.
The Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Center also expressed “outrage” at the case in a separate appeal to the Armenian authorities. “Attacks on independent journalists, members of opposition organizations and human rights activists in Armenia have become a virtually daily occurrence,” it said.
Hakobian lodged a formal complaint with Armenia’s Special Investigative Service (SIS), a law-enforcement agency subordinated to state prosecutors. The SIS responded by summoning him for questioning.
Hakobian was taken to the police department of Yerevan’s central Kentron district on June 5 after a bitter argument with two police officers that visited his apartment and handed him a SIS summons. He was charged with assaulting the officers and remanded in pre-trial custody the next day. The accusation carries hefty fines and up to five years’ imprisonment.
A police statement last week claimed that Hakobian punched one of the policemen and slapped the other after they “reprimanded” him for being drunk and wrongly signing the document. The AHA activist strongly denies that, according to his defense lawyer and representatives of Armenia’s state human rights ombudsman who visited him in Yerevan’s Nubarashen prison.
Danielian likewise insisted on Monday that Hakobian did not attack the policemen and was himself beaten up at the Kentron police. He claimed to have obtained photographs of his comrade showing traces of violence on his face and head.
The official version of events has also been dismissed by several international and regional human rights organizations. In a joint statement issued last week, they demanded the immediate release of Hakobian.
The Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Center also expressed “outrage” at the case in a separate appeal to the Armenian authorities. “Attacks on independent journalists, members of opposition organizations and human rights activists in Armenia have become a virtually daily occurrence,” it said.