The lawyer, Karen Alaverdian, said he was subjected to “undue physical force,” handcuffed and detained after trying to stop several officers kicking and punching his client at a police station in Yerevan last week.
The Armenian police launched an internal inquiry into the incident. Nevertheless, Alaverdian was charged with “hooliganism” and obstruction of legitimate police actions.
The lawyer said that he simply refused to leave the police station after intervening to stop the alleged torture of his client who is currently standing trial on unspecified criminal charges.
The chairman of Armenia’s Chamber of Advocates, the national bar association, voiced support for Alaverdian and said the police had no right to evict him from the police station during the suspect’s interrogation. “The lawyer did his job,” Simon Babayan told a joint news conference with Alaverdian.
Two other lawyers claimed to have been ill-treated at another Yerevan police station in February. They said the violence occurred after their teenage client stood by his allegations that he was beaten up in police custody.
The Chamber of Advocates demanded at the time that law-enforcement authorities investigate the allegations and prosecute “all guilty persons.” No police officer is known to have been charged, fired or subjected to disciplinary action over that incident.
Human rights activists say police torture in Armenia remains widespread despite police reforms declared by the Armenian government.
A government bill enacted as part of those reforms three years ago called for surveillance cameras to be installed inside all police stations -- and their interrogation rooms in particular -- by 2023. Only ten police stations were equipped with such cameras. They were switched off in last July on then national police chief Vahe Ghazarian s orders.
The police said the cameras are no longer needed because under another law enacted last year, suspects detained by police officers must be interrogated by another law-enforcement body, the Investigative Committee.