Epress.am News from Armenia
David Gevorgyan, detained during the clashes on Mashtots Ave. in Yerevan on Nov. 5, claims that police actions against him and fellow detainees were unlawful. At a press conference today, Gevorgyan said he did not participate in the march. Upon learning that the street was closed, he came to Liberty Square, where he was detained without grounds and for 3.5 hours while in police custody he tried to find out the reason for his detention. According to Gevorgyan, for hours police officers were attempting to determine which officer detained him.
"Then they said there's a criminal case under Article 316 Section 2 [“violence against a representative of the authorities”]. They drew up the record of my arrest only 6–7 hours later," said Gevorgyan, who is not being charged.
Member of a prison monitoring group Nelly Harutyunyan said she visited at least 10 of those arrested. According to her, their visitation rights and their right to make calls were violated.
Also speaking at the press conference, political analyst Edgar Vardanyan noticed that in "civilized countries" when citizens are demonstrating disobedience, for example, when "anarchists smash the windows of brand name stores and set buildings on fire", police officers wait for the demonstration to be held, and only then do they begin to make arrests and detain people, "since citizens have the right to protest."
Update same day, 8:46 pm: An earlier version of this article translated Edgar Vardanyan's remarks as the "right to revolt"; however, the word "protest" more accurately reflects the original statement.