Epress.am News from Armenia
Armenia's Court of Appeal today dismissed Etchmiadzin residents Ashot Khudoyan and Heghine Makaryan's appeal to overrule the ruling of a lower court which refused to launch criminal proceedings against police for removing the couple and their children from their place of protest across the street from the presidential palace on December 2, 2013, the day of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Armenia.
The appeals court, basically, agreed with the ruling of the lower instance court, regardless of the plaintiffs' attorney, Helsinki Citizens Assembly Vanadzor Office representative Tatevik Siradeghyan's remark that the Special Investigation Service (SIS) was clearly biased. According to her, prior to rejecting the demand to launch criminal proceedings against the police, SIS investigator H. Harutyunyan took into account only police officers' testimonies and paid no attention to the plaintiffs' remarks of the plaintiffs, as well as those of another protestor, Emma Sahakyan, who was present at the scene of the incident.
Also ignored were media reports, including news articles in which an Ombudsman's Office employee states that Khudoyan was subjected to violence.
Emma Sahakyan and Heghine Makaryan, in particular, said that 15 police officers in plainclothes, through the use of force, removed Ashot Khudoyan from outside the presidential palace then came back for his wife and children. Police officers left behind the couple's youngest child (a baby), later sending someone to come pick him up.
According to the appeal, SIS investigator Harutyunyan also didn't take into account any testimony related to the injuries Khudoyan sustained and was satisfied only by the results of the medical examination, which, however, was carried out about 2 months after the incident when, for example, Khudoyan's head wound had healed.