Epress.am News from Armenia
Activist Vardges Gaspari henceforth will regard Human Rights Defender Karen Andreasyan as a senior advisor to the police and decide accordingly which questions he will raise and which he won't, he declared in conversation with Epress.am today.
On Thursday, Gaspari declared a one-day hunger strike at the Human Rights Defender's Office. Earlier, Gaspari had contacted the office, informing staff of an incident on Aug. 23 whereby he was picked up by police outside city hall and detained for several hours. He wanted to know from the Ombudsman's Office why he was detained without proper documentation.
The activist also contacted the Human Rights Defender on Aug. 24, asking him to confirm that he was, indeed, at the police station and the Ombdusman is aware of this. Not receiving any answers, Gaspari sent an additional three written appeals to the office.
Today Gaspari presented the same demand to the staff, asking for an explanation as to why the Human Rights Defender's Office didn't respond to the incident in a timely manner. A representative of the office said that appeals are responded to only after the case has been studied.
Another employee cited the police saying that at the police station Gaspari was presented with a written protocol which he refused to sign.
"Excuse me, at the same time that a person is being tortured, you are saying that you responded after 3 months. I want to confirm: did you tell me at that time that the police gave me protocols which I allegedly refused to sign? Confirm or deny it — you don't have to show me the police decision. How can I prove 3 months later that they didn't present me with any documents? In that case, why did I contact the rapid response team — just for the sake of recording the fact? While you failed to taken note of the breach of human rights," Gaspari said to the Ombudsman staff.
According to him, the Human Rights Defender is refusing to present to him the fact of the crime of which he is aware. "Isn't 3 months enough time for the Human Rights Defender to answer a question that doesn't depend on any other state agency? What else can I expect from the human rights defender?", he said, implying that he has no other expectations from this office.