Epress.am News from Armenia
Asked by reporters today whether Shant Harutyunyan was subjected to violence, RA Minister of Justice Hrayr Tovmasyan said he visited Harutyunyan and others who were detained in clashes with police earlier this month.
One of the reporters remarked that MP Nikol Pashinyan suspects that Harutyunyan was not only beaten, but also that the violence against him continues.
"The ancient Greeks used to say: I doubt everything. If someone is [prone to being] suspicious, he can doubt. We have clear procedures. There is a mechanism for appeal […] It's not like I control the detention centers. According to Pashinyan's statement, all that took place not in the penitentiary but in the detention center," said the minister.
According to him, anyone taken to a penitentiary undergoes a medical examination and records are drawn up. Any trace of violence, even a scratch is recorded. Asked by Epress.am where can one obtain the results of Shant Harutyunyan's medical examination, the justice minister didn't respond, saying he promised to answer four questions, yet he's answered seven already and will not take anymore questions.
Recall, on Nov. 6, Pashinyan went to the Yerevan detention center and met with anti-government demonstrators who were arrested after clashes with riot police on Nov. 5 in central Yerevan. Harutyunyan told the opposition MP that the police chief and deputy police chief personally used violence against him.
Pashinyan contacted Chief of Special Investigative Service (SIS) Vahram Shahinyan, asking the SIS to launch an investigation into the allegations.
Head of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Vanadzor office Artur Sakunts, who also paid a visit to Shant Harutyunyan, in an interview with RFE/RL's Armenian service, said there were traces of violence on Harutyunyan's hands and there is no doubt that the veteran political activist was subjected to violence while in police custody.