Epress.am News from Armenia
Members of the observer group that monitors penal institutions in Armenia Arayik Zalyan (Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Vanadzor office attorney) and Arina Metsoyan (Asparez Journalists' Club) during a March 27, 2014 visit to Artik Penitentiary met with prisoners Robert Muradyan, Andranik Mkhitaryan, and Jon Martirosyan, who said police employees subjected them to inhumane treatment with the purpose of extorting confessions, reports the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Vanadzor office [AM].
Robert Muradyan said that Gyumri Police Mush Division employee Artur Grigoryan on October 27, 2013, went to his house, gave his mother, Shoghik Muradyan, his number and said that Robert Muradyan has to go to the police station for questioning. The same day, Muradyan went to the Mush Division where, by his account, he was subjected to violence, beating and degrading treatment by various division staff. He claims that during he interrogation, police employees uttered curses of a sexual nature in his and his mother's name and used force, harming his dignity. Police officers were able to get their desired confession from Muradyan through the use of violence, reports the NGO.
Andranik Mkhitaryan, in turn, said he works as a taxi driver in Gyumri. On October 23, 2013, while working, he stopped by a grocery store and entered. Leaving the store, he noticed a group of police officers gathered by the his vehicle. He approached them and asked what happened, but they didn't reply. When he declared that he is the driver of this car, police employees, by his account, immediately pounced on him and cursed him.
Mkhitaryan said the police officers pounced on him in such a way that "the cigarette in his hand entered his eye." They then sat him inside a Opel make vehicle and continued to beat him inside the car. He said they threatened him, saying he can't imagine what they'll do to him if he doesn't say where the guys who were with him are; that is, those with whom he went to see the Russian soldiers.
The driver talked about his passengers, but the police officers not believing him continued to hit and insult him. Later, he was taken to the police station, then, pushing and shouting, they took him to the police chief. They told the chief that Mkhitaryan robbed the Russians. Unable to resist the threats and degrading treatment, Mkhitaryan did their bidding and confessed, he says, to a crime he did not commit.
Jon Martirosyan said on October 23, 2013, he too was at the police station, and, according to him, he heard sounds of beating in the room next door, which were coming from Andranik Mkhitaryan.
Based on these testimonies, the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Vanadzor office sent a report about a crime to head of the RA Special Investigation Service Vahram Shahinyan and RA Prosecutor General Gevorg Kostanyan, in which it states: "I appeal to you to launch a criminal case with the request to identify and subject to appropriate accountability the police employees who subjected to psychological pressure and tortured Robert Muradyan and Andranik Mkhitaryan."
Updated at 5:20 pm (local time) on the same day: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Andranik Mkhitaryan and Jon Martirosyan were at the police station on October 22, 2013.