Human Rights Activist Says Many Gaps in Defense Ministry Statement

Head of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office Artur Sakunts (pictured), addressing the statement issued on Tuesday by the RA Ministry of Defense in which the ministry denied an assault incident in an Armenian military base, said that the defense ministry only partially refuted the details surrounding the incident.

Earlier, Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office had submitted a claim to the RA Military Prosecutor’s Office regarding an incident in which a senior officer allegedly assaulted a conscript by the name of Rafik Hovhannisyan in the 4th military base in village of Khachik in Vayk.

The father of the conscript in question approached the human rights organization and said that an officer in the battalion, seeing a phone in his son’s hand, snatched it and ordered him to do push-ups as a form of punishment. The son, according to the father’s story, refused, as a result of which he was subject to “a beating, violence and inhumane treatment.” Hovhannisyan was then taken to the medical unit of the base, then later moved to the hospital in Goris, where he received treatment and underwent some tests.

“But the defense ministry doesn’t say how they demanded, how the process was carried out, what happened after demanding, why was the conscript in the medical unit,” said Sakunts.

The human rights activist noted that they will be speaking with the boy’s father, as well as attempting to organize a meeting with Hovhannisyan himself.