Epress.am News from Armenia
Mnatsakan Aleksanyan, who was called in yesterday as a witness by the Gyumri police and subsequently arrested, was not given the proper investigation records initiated against him, said Aleksanyan’s lawyer Hayk Harutyunyan in an interview with Epress.am. As of 1PM Aleksanyan is still being kept at the Gyumri investigation department. The lawyer has motioned to receive the documents, including the arrest records and initial decision, as to what Aleksanyan was charged with.
“For around one hour they didn’t let me in. When I finally saw Aleksanyan, I asked him to give me the documents (regarding his arrest), he said that they hadn’t given him anything,” told Hayk Harutyunyan.
The lawyer said that one thing they know is that Aleksanyan was arrested in the framework of the criminal case initiated into the January 15 incidents on articles of hooliganism and use of force against representatives of authorities. Currently, the young man is kept in detention without being formally charged of the latter.
Yesterday, Aleksanyan was invited as a witness, he gave a testimony, and was informed afterwards that he was arrested. Journalist Levon Barseghyan wrote on his Facebook page that Aleksanyan was interrogated for 13 hours straight on January 17 as well. A few websites' broadcasts of January 15 events showed Aleksanyan conversing with Heritage Party MP Zaruhi Postanjyan. Aleksanyan reprimanded the MP for getting into a police vehicle. “I have one question, did you find it appropriate to be seen in a police car on the streets of Gyumri? Answer my question with a yes or no. If you asked anyone from Lenikakan (Gyumri) to take you to London, they would, but you shouldn’t have sit in a dog’s car,” said Aleksanyan.
Thousands of people demonstrated on January 15 in front the Shirak province’s Prosecutor's office demanding that the murder suspect of the 7 members of the Avetisyan family Russian soldier Valery Permyakov be transferred and tried by Armenian law enforcement. One group of the demonstrators decided to move toward the Russian consulate and were barricaded by police, which resulted in a confrontation. Ever since a criminal case has been opened for use of violence against representatives of the authorities, however, no one had been arrested. Many of demonstration participants have been interrogated as witnesses in Gyumri.