Epress.am News from Armenia
Armenian authorities have yet to ensure meaningful investigations into excessive police force during Mar. 2008 clashes in Yerevan when opposition supporters protested alleged fraud in the previous month’s presidential election. Twelve opposition supporters remain imprisoned following the events. Ten people were killed during protestors’ clashes with police, including two security officials and eight protestors. Only four police officers have been convicted of excessive use of force, in Dec. 2009. They were sentenced to three years, but were amnestied immediately, and are only barred from working in law enforcement, reads a 2011 Human Rights Watch Report on Armenia.
More than 50 civilians were prosecuted in relation to the Mar. 2008 violence, with some sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Although a June 2009 presidential pardon released many of them, local human rights groups maintain that 11 opposition supporters remain imprisoned on
politically motivated charges.
On Jan. 19, a court sentenced Nikol Pashinyan, opposition leader and editor-in-chief of the Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper, to seven years imprisonment for allegedly organizing “mass disorders” during the Mar. 2008 events. An appeals court upheld the decision but halved his sentence. In Nov. 2010 Pashinyan claimed two masked men attacked and beat him in Kosh prison; the government denied the allegation.
Torture and ill-treatment in police custody remains a serious problem, the report continues: local human rights groups report continued ill-treatment in police custody. For example, on Apr. 13, 2010, police detained Vahan Khalafyan, 24, and four others in Charentsavan, north of Yerevan, on suspicion of robbery. Khalafyan died of knife wounds some hours later. Police say he stabbed himself with a knife obtained in the station, and deny allegations of ill-treatment.
On Apr. 23, investigators charged the head of Charentsavan’s Criminal Intelligence Department and three others with abuse of authority. The trial is ongoing at this writing. Khalafyan’s relatives and human rights groups want additional murder and torture charges. An internal police investigation led to the dismissal of Charentsavan’s police chief and three officers. The Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly (HCA) Vanadzor Office reported that police ill-treated two other men detained with Khalafyan. Police failed to conclusively investigate these incidents.
In Sept. a YouTube video showed Army Major Sasun Galstyan beating and humiliating two conscripts. An investigation into abuse of power is ongoing.
On July 26, 14 human rights groups issued a statement citing a 20 percent rise in the national prison population, which is leading to overcrowding, health problems, and conflicts among detainees.
The report also addressed media freedom in the country, saying that amendments to the Law on Television and Radio threaten to limit media pluralism, as well as noting the situation with GALA and A1+. Since 2007, GALA has been subject to apparently politically motivated court cases and harassment by state agencies, seemingly in retaliation for the station’s regular coverage of opposition party activities, while A1+ remained off the air for an eighth year, despite a June 2008 ECTHR judgment that Armenia had violated freedom of expression due to repeatedly arbitrarily denying the station a broadcast license.
Further, the report notes, authorities continue to restrict freedom of assembly by frequently denying requests to hold demonstrations.
On May 31, riot police forcibly prevented opposition demonstrators from entering Yerevan’s Liberty Square. They detained 15 demonstrators following clashes with riot police, holding them for several hours and denying them access to lawyers. Among those detained were David Kiramijyan and Sargis Gevorgyan, who were then charged with hooliganism and using force against a police officer, respectively.
On Nov. 9, police briefly detained four youth opposition activists protesting outside a Yerevan hotel at the start of an EU-organized human rights seminar. The activists claimed police punched and kicked them in the police station.
The report concludes by saying that Armenia’s international partners did not fully use their leverage to influence the human rights situation.
In April 2010 Armenia suspended the ratification process for two protocols it signed with Turkey in 2009 to establish bilateral relations. The unresolved conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh continues to impede normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. The EU commended Armenia’s commitment to pursuing normalization of relations, but expressed concern about loss of momentum.